Life's Little Pleasures

New Years

2012-01-19T20:42:00.000-08:00

A tradition Jared and I have shared since we were married...maybe even before, I can't remember. Every year for New Years we spend the holiday up at his friends cabin with a bunch of his buddies.

This year was especially fun because we couldn't wait to really introduce Annie to snow.

She really didn't know what to think and definitely wasn't about to move when we stood her up in it.

She loved her new sled that Grandma and Grandpa Griffin gave her...it took some warming up...

but once Dad hopped on, she was good to go

This girl LOVES snowmobiles. No exaggeration. I'm not just being one of those weird parents.

After spending the weekend her she says "snomo" which translates to snowmobile. At the cabin you could hear the snowmobiles very clearly every time they would pass by. So every time the heater kicks on at our house she thinks it's a snowmobile and excitedly says "snomo snomo snomo!! vroom vroom vroom!"

Could this Dad be any prouder?

Sitting in her "seat" at the cabin

Annie's sweet nursery teacher made her this little doll for Christmas and she just adores it. I love it because it's all soft and there aren't any hard plastic pieces to it.

She insisted this pillow was the babies blankie. She would put the "blankie" down, lay the doll on top, walk away and say "shhhh"

wearing Mommy's helmet...

wear it proud baby...

wear it proud...

Before we left, Jared and I took Annie for a ride to the top of the mountain. Jared sat in front and we sandwiched Annie between us. Every so often you would hear this tiny little "weeee" escape from her mouth

On the way down, Jared put Annie in front of him so she could see the ride down. She loved every second and panicked when the ride was over. Every time we go in the garage she beelines it strait to Jared's snowmobile and says "snomo snomo vroom vroom!!!!"

Decorating the Tree

2012-01-17T13:49:00.000-08:00

Time has flown since last Christmas. It was fun to see the pictures I took of her and Jared decorating the tree and to see how much Annie has grown since then.

She was very good decorating the tree with us. She knew exactly which decorations were her's and which ones not to touch.

You can see her ornament from this year just to the left of her ear. She knew that it was hers and if you asked her to show it to you she would run right to it and say jing jing jing (jingle, jingle, jingle)

I couldn't have been happier this Christmas. The ornament I bought her this year was covered in little jingle bells so she was really only interested in that one ornament. She didn't touch any of the others. I thought for sure, I'd have the half decorated tree. Such a sweetheart!

18 Months

2012-01-16T17:05:00.000-08:00

I'm quite ashamed actually. I just noticed that I never really posted a 12 month update of Annie's growth. 6 months later, and I promise this is loaded with all sorts of updates.

Annie is still our happy little pea (I call her Pete these days for short just to be stubborn, as Jared has informed me that we will never name one of our kids Peter...darn you family guy!). She's talking like crazy and says new words everyday. Some, but not all, include: cracker, eat, hungy (hungry), dink (drink), juice, chair, shoes (she LOVES shoes), socks, fork, spoon, pants, cookie, hair, petty (pretty), potty (wishful thinking on my part, she just likes to say the word), candy, side (outside), monkey, hoss (horse), goggy (doggy), peas (please), dee do (thank you), baba (bottle), milk, more, bye bye, sorry, etc. She mostly repeats everything I say to her...unfortunately this also means she tells me no a lot...reflection of my parenting??? My favorite? peeeuuuw (this is to inform me that she has a poopy diaper)

She loves to try to do everything we do. This includes: playing in her kitchen, walking around in Dad's shoes (she tried my heels once, it didn't last long), pretend cleaning the floor (with a rag and a broom), climbing on chairs to eat at the table with us, combing her hair (don't laugh there's plenty to comb!), reading books, dancing, singing, etc.

It's one of my favorite traditions every year to watch White Christmas while I wrap the tree in lights. Since we don't watch t.v. very often, Annie was quite intrigued to stand about 6 inches from the television and tap dance (well her version of tap dancing) along with Danny Kaye and Bing Crosby. Over the course of the holiday season, we probably watched it 4 or 5 times because she just loved to dance along.

The latest of houdini tricks...

Though I've been warned that kids start to become picky eaters by about this age, Annie has showed up all that advice and still eats just about anything. My biggest struggle with her?...mashed potatoes...seriously kid, you're killin' me. Mashed potatoes are a staple! Especially with the amount of potatoes we grew in our garden this summer. She got over her dislike of ketchup and now refers to it as "dip dip". She loves to eat with a fork in hand and when she is done, she lets me know with a quick flip of her plate right onto her tray. I'm hoping she doesn't learn to flip it onto the floor...wishful thinking?

Playing dress up

Annie's newest love are babies (pretend ones of course). She loves everything about them. She loves to carry them around all day, she pretend cries for them, gives them a dinky (binky), kisses them, hugs them, rocks/bounces them (that one's funny to watch), push them in strollers, wraps them in blankies, you name it. This Christmas my Mum bought her a baby and she wanted nothing to do with opening the present so I tore the paper just enough that she could see the babies face. Her face was priceless, she started to shake and was screaming baby at the top of her lungs. I couldn't get that baby out of it's packaging soon enough. She carted that baby around all night.

Dog Pile On Dad!!!! p.s the strainer is in the picture because she was walking around wearing it on her head, pointing to it and saying "hat"

I love this new stage we've entered into. It's nice not wondering what she needs or wants. Though she's not talking in full sentences or anything at least I have a clue as to how I can help her. She's so happy, LOVES nursery and has no problem walking in and just leaving me behind, likes to have her hair done, loves to wear shoes, and the best of all, loves to give loves, hugs, and kisses to Mommy & Daddy. She continues to be the best thing that has entered into our lives and I'm thankful everyday that I was lucky enough to be blessed with such a sweetheart.

First ever piggy tails!!!! This is the hairdo of choice these days....the other option? Skulletville

Christmas Time

2012-01-15T13:43:00.000-08:00

We traveled up to WA this year to spend Christmas with my family. Jared wasn't able to get any time off so I headed up a week before Christmas and Jared joined us on the 23rd. We were fortunate enough to have my grandma come stay with my parents so she could spend more time with grandkids and great grandkids. By the time we left Annie new everyone by name and even recognizes voices on the phone. I'm so sad that we live so far from my family but so grateful that we get a couple of times a year to just spend time together.

Making Gingerbread Houses

Let's be honest, she was just in it for the candy anyway

Seriously...check out the concentration on Neal's face

Check out that roof structure...made with nerds :)

Kyle & Matt opted for the Gingerbread Christmas Tree

I gave in, moved Annie to my bed in the middle of the night, and this is what I woke up to in the morning

Annual butter cookie decorating

we even got Grandma in on the action

And Annie ate them...she's signing and saying "more" in this picture

Growing up, we would always act out the Christmas story. I was always Mary and my Dad the donkey. We decided that grandkids were old enough this year to act it out...

Mum & Dad didn't have a baby so we used a little monkey for Baby Jesus

Neal helping Chloe read the scripture story

I didn't catch it on camera but as soon as the door opened Annie came running through and yelled "HI" and then ran the other way. After that, Bodie (the shepherd) and Charlie (Mary), riding Bumpa (the donkey).

The Angel!

The stars of the show

Christmas Eve Dinner

2012-01-13T13:13:00.000-08:00

My family has the best traditions. I might be biased but I really think so. Since my Mum and Dad cook a fabulous prime rib for Christmas dinner, we always do fun appetizers and snacks for dinner on Christmas Eve. The past couple of years we've "upped" it a notch and throw out some crazy new dish. This year, Neal and I kicked my Mum out of the kitchen and prepared the whole dinner.

The table...some of the usual include: sheepherders dish (pictured in the bread bowl above), chips, crackers,

stuffed mushrooms

my new dish: Blackberry baked brie (wouldn't make it again, the brie didn't stay gooey long enough)

Neals new dish...AHMAZING!!!! Three Cheese Crostinis. seriously kicked me out of the park with this one

cheese ball (my personal favorite!)

Shrimp/Cream Cheese/Cocktail sauce dip

Asian BBQ pork

a veggie plate

a salami and specialty cheese plate

7 layer bean dip

As always a feast to remember. I love this tradition. Thanks Neal for helping out!!!!

Christmas Cooking

2012-01-11T20:12:00.000-08:00

I LOVE Christmas. I love the music, I've been known to listen to it waay before Thanksgiving...it's just music people, settle down. I love the decorating, the lights, the food, oh the food, and people are generally happier this time of year.

The biggest thing I love of all? The cooking. I love to bake. I don't do it all year because, let's be honest, I don't think I could work out hard enough to lose the amount of weight I would gain. So I save all my baking for the holidays. My Mum always made the best goodies so I've made it a tradition to do the same with my family.

Traditions include (click to get the recipe. p.s. three of those recipes aren't on here yet, apparently I never posted them...):

Italian Nut Balls (i.e. thumbprint cookies)
Butter Cookies
Caramels
Russian Tea Cakes (i.e. snowballs)
Peanut Butter Ritz Cookies
Divinity
Toffee Crunch

Annie wanted to get in on the action this year so I put my apron on her. She wore it most the afternoon :)

Baby Bums

2012-01-06T13:52:00.000-08:00

I took this picture as I was trying to plan out how I was going to hang my family pictures. I noticed then something funny that I've managed to document whether or not I wanted to. You see that doll in the top right corner? It's one of Annie's favorites.....look a bit closer, you may have to click on the picture to see.

Annie's bum was cute....that baby in the top right corner? not so much. Is it really so much to ask a manufacturer make clothes that actually fit their dolls??? seriously people

Christmas Card 2011

2012-01-04T13:17:00.000-08:00

NO NO NO!!!!

2011-12-30T15:28:00.000-08:00

It was snowing and I was so excited to show Annie the snow falling so I lifted her up and opened the blinds so she could watch the snow. Her eyes got wide and she quickly let out a very cute "whoa". Now I might consider my arms strong but she's 23 lbs now and I don't care how strong you are, you can't just stand there forever. So eventually I put her down but every time I put her down I would hear a prompt "NO". I'm used to hearing that these days as yes and no tend to be one and the same so I just ignored it and went into the kitchen. She ran after me, grabbed onto my apron strings, drug me back to the window, pointed outside yelled "NO NO NO".

Lightbulb moment..."no" is now synonymous with yes, no, and SNOW. She was yelling snow and wanted to watch it more.

I gave in, let my child be hazardous and enjoy about 30 minutes standing on that chair watching the snowfall. Her father would be so proud... he counts the snowflakes until he can go snowmobiling :)

Family Pictures 2011

2011-12-28T15:22:00.000-08:00

Thanks so much Jody!!!

Logan Holiday Gift Show

2011-12-28T15:16:00.000-08:00

So I mentioned this show in a previous post but realized I never really posted about it.


The Booth

Items pictured above (you may have to look close): tutus (hanging on the left), little guy tie onesies, stenciled onesies, christmas tree onesies, onesie dresses, carseat covers, hair bows, hair flowers, etc.

Items sold included: brain squeezers (baby headbands, top left), diaper changing pads (bottom left), binky clips, watch faces, watch bands, mini baby clips

Lots and lots of onesie dresses

Watch bands

It was fun...

A good experience...

But I probably won't be doing it again...

This was my first ever show. And I did make some money but it was pretty slow going and the products I make tend to make people say "What a great idea, I'm totally going to make that". Honestly? I'll save you the trouble if you would just buy it ;)

I've come to realize that I love to make the products but selling them in person is just not my thing. The amount of inventory I had to make was quite a lot of work and with Jared working full time I came to realize just how fortunate I am that Annie naps 3 hours a day. But my home was quite neglected as was my family. So for now, I'm sticking to Etsy but I'm more than happy to do custom orders. Just hop on over to my site :)

Pumpkin Carving

2011-11-25T19:49:00.000-08:00

I'm quite aware that I should have posted these weeks ago but life's kind of gotten away with me.

Annie was quite unsure about sticking her hand in the pumpkin goop...

But with a spoon in hand she had no problem at all!

Jared even took her trick or treating to a few houses. She kind of got the hang of knocking and was all about the candy (or tandy, and she calls it) but was most definitely ready for bed by the time she got back!

Aviatrix

2011-11-23T19:30:00.001-08:00

Isn't it super cute!!!!

I found the pattern here for absolutely free!

I made it in one afternoon and she loves wearing it. There is also a version without the straps I made but it's little big right now....

Tiffanie, you should TOTALLY make this one!

Holiday Boutique

2011-11-15T12:40:00.001-08:00

Come on over!

I'm going to make some sweet treats and set up my booth from the Logan Holiday Gift Show.

You're welcome to come even if you don't buy, it will make me feel better if I have at least a couple people show up ;)

p.s. I didn't put my address on the flier because I'm assuming if you read my blog, you know where I live. But for the sake of my family's safety just in case there are some crazies reading my blog, I took the address off. Email me if you need directions.

Snow Show

2011-11-01T11:28:00.000-07:00

Not only was this child born a physical copy of her father, it seems as though she has inherited some enjoyment of his hobbies as well.

We went to the snow show and found a little mini snowmobile. Immediately Annie was out of the stroller and Dad was placing her right on the snowmobile.

Pure Joy....

Seriously was kicking her legs and squealing with excitement... Dad was so proud.

We'll see if this face lasts when she's on a real one and hears how loud the motor is....this kid is scared of my vacuum. I mean seriously, Mom's hobbies are waaay more fun anyway :)

Bzzzzzz.......

2011-10-31T11:39:00.000-07:00

My busy bumble bee!

I had this idea for her costume in my head for awhile now and since I'm too cheap to go buy something, I had to have something simple. I love how her costume turned out. Simple yet sweet!

PIGGIE TAILS!!!!!

Easily my favorite part of this whole costume. I curled her pigtails out so they looked like antennae and make little mini korker bows to go in front of them...eeeeek!

As you can tell, Noah was quite fond of his bumble bee outfit (or really just the hood part was bugging him...ha, not pun intended). I just thought it was too fun that they were both bumble bees this year!

I wish I could have gotten a shot with all her cousins but in the chaos of the party, there was no way. I was able though to grab Lydia (or deeda as Annie calls her), and snap this picture. She's Smurfette!!!!!! I love it!!!

The Patch

2011-10-30T11:30:00.000-07:00

So even though we received free pumpkins from my sister-in-law's fabulous garden, I still wanted to take Annie to a pumpkin patch so we could snap some fun pictures. My little photogenic princess couldn't have pleased me more.

Seconds after this photo was taken, she accidentally knocked the pumpkin off of the hay bale. She was so disappointed!

Patting the white pumpkin with Dad...

She thought this was the greatest. They had these HUGE crates full of different kinds of pumpkin and squash. Annie loved sitting on top of the pumpkins and piling them in her lap. She chose one and would not let it go!

Hitching a ride in a wagon...with her pumpkin in tow.

Photo with Mommy!

We caved. But for 75 cents you can't beat the joy that little pumpkin brings to her...priceless!

Halloween

2011-10-29T11:23:00.000-07:00

Is for cute outfits. I'm sure of it. Now, I don't have a boy, but I'm sure it just wouldn't be as fun.

My friend made this SUPER cute skirt for a couple of girls in my neighborhood. We've rocked it a couple of times.

P.S. her tights are purple (eeeek)!!!!!

Not to mention the fabulous matching hair clip I just HAD to make!

Not to mention this super cute Halloween shirt I found at carters for 60% off. I just couldn't resist that sparkly witch!

Just thought I would throw this in so you could get an idea at how many pictures I have to take in order to get a good one. She is constantly on the go and running!

Does anyone else give their children broken meaningless toys (in this case a broken birdie for bad-mitten) just to get a shot of them standing still?

Don't Forget!!!!

2011-10-28T11:04:00.000-07:00

Shameless plug...but wait, it's my blog, why should it be shameless???

It's not shameless at all. In fact I am super excited!!! I'm finally selling in a craft show. Well it's not really just a craft show. It's a Holiday Gift Show and they'll have everything!

Curious?!? Go see for yourself! You can go to the website, or better yet come see in person! I'll be there, in the handmade items room.

Jared's already made the frame for my display, can't wait to show you a sneak peak!!!

Friday & Saturday, November 4-5th from 10AM-7PM!

Yogurt...I should have seen it coming

2011-10-26T10:59:00.000-07:00

This was good, she ate it all right?

Well maybe some of it is all over the tray, and her bib...and maybe her belly too

Meema taught her this one. The hand to the face is accompanied with a very cute "oh no!" I immediately know something is wrong...

Seriously? This is what I get for trying to teach my daughter to use a bowl and a spoon?

Leeees!

2011-10-25T10:54:00.000-07:00

Or Leaves as the rest of us know them. Leees is Annie's version (which of course is yelled at the top of her lungs as she's running through them). She just loves to play in the leaves.

And apparently have them thrown on her too.

She'll just run back and forth to hear the swish swish sound they make while she runs through them...

We've been fortunate enough to actually have a fall this year and the fall colors are amazing. The whole mountain side is painted bright red with some yellow patches here and there.

Have I mentioned how much she loves raspberries? We planted raspberry bushes on the whole west side of our house a few years ago and we finally got a big crop this year. She'll just stand there, pick them off and eat them all day.

Bumpa's House

2011-10-22T07:01:00.000-07:00


ok...not really at Bumpa's house but this just cracked me up. Annie decided to take a seat in one of my mixing bowls and got stuck...this was seconds before her panic!

Ok, onto the real post. We went to WA for my friends baby shower and instead of just flying in for the shower and flying out, we stayed for a long weekend so we could spend some quality time with family. Luckily, we even got a family dinner in with all my brothers (a big deal since some have odd work schedules and another lives in Oregon).

Annie just loves her Bumpa. I have a little plastic book with family pictures in it and she always knows right who Bumpa is. We called my parents just the other day and she wouldn't stop saying Bumpa, so I handed her the phone (which she thought was quite the treat) and she just stared at it. Which is funny since she'll walk around using the channel changer as a phone and blabber like crazy.

Playing with Uncle Neeeooo! They're so fun to watch together....ladies get your act together! This man will be a great father (forgive me Neal :)) and husband!

Cousin Charlotte coming to join in the fun!

I just couldn't resist. I love this picture...

Playing ball with Bumpa

This is usually how my day goes. Annie just loves being outside. Thank goodness I don't have handle knobs like these. She'll usually give the door a try herself and then whine a bit then start signing help and please...it about kills me it's so cute.

...and then she mopes. I don't know what I'm going to do when the cold weather hits and I can't just open my back door and let her play on the deck.

We had a lot of fun and can't wait for the craziness of Christmas!

Chrissy's Baby Shower

2011-10-20T07:17:00.000-07:00

You know I love a good excuse to craft right??? Well I recently had THE MOST PERFECT excuse. One of my really good friends growing up is having babies....yep that was meant to be plural. Twin boys to be exact. She's due the beginning of December but to avoid having a baby shower while she might possibly be on bedrest, we had the shower at the end of September.

The Invite

My fabulous Dad cutting branches for me so I can make the lovely creation below!

The wishing tree! I LOVE how this turned out!

Ralph and Rastus! To Chrissy's credit, she is not naming her boys Ralph and Rastus. The story behind these names, well actually just Rastus is that when my Dad would make up stories when we were little Rastus was always the name of the character. This was my Mum's gift to Chrissy. She just decided to "wrap" them like this instead of put them in bags. I thought it was great!

The Diaper Cake! But also one of the games. We played "The Price is Right" All the items on display where on a sheet of paper and everyone had to guess the price of the items without going over.

Two bums means twice the diapers! We decided to have a diaper raffle. Whoever brought diapers, entered their name in a raffle to win a prize!

The Diaper raffle prize: Cookies in a jar, a corn heating bag, a super fuzzy blanket, and some FABULOUS fudge from a local candy store on Bainbridge.

The prizes for the Price is right game. The top three each one a frame.

The quilts! So my tradition is to make a quilt for every grandchild on my side of the family. Well I only have one brother that's married and they said their done with kids and since Chrissy is such a close friend I jumped at the opportunity.

An up close shot of some of the prints.

The food! I suddenly realize these aren't the greatest pictures but there was some amazing food. I had some help with this. A gal who knows Chrissy's family well and who I knew from Girls Camp also hosted the shower. She took care of the crepes and all the toppings (which did NOT dissapoint) and I took care of the cinnamon rolls, ham & swiss rolls, and a fruit platter. YUM!

Opening gifts!

Side note, I forgot to take an up close shot of the garland in the background but I made her a couple of onesies and hung them with some links. P.S. I am NOT picking my nose in this picture!

Lots of support. I couldn't believe all the faces from the past.

Little Bainbridge Ferry Shirts!!!!

The beautiful Mommy to be with Ralph and Rustus in tow! She looks great and I couldn't believe how active she was having two babies hanging out in there! She was on her hands and knees playing with Annie! She'll be a great Mom and I can't wait to meet the little tykes this Christmas! Thanks for letting me go over the top for you Chrissy!!!!

Owieee!

2011-10-18T08:01:00.000-07:00

Now I understand that with learning to walk comes being clumsy so naturally Annie tends to run into things, the wall, the couch, the T.V.. Usually, no harm is done.

Well the other day, I put her in the shower with Jared for a quick wash. When I went to get her out of the shower (which is a stand up shower), she slipped walking towards me and bumped her chin on the rim of the door frame and broke the skin right open. I was horrified that I let my baby get hurt. It bled quite a bit and Jared was one second from running her to the emergency room for stitches.

Turns out, after we got her wrapped in a towel and dried off, it just stopped bleeding and she stopped crying. As you can see from the above picture, we have one tough cookie on our hands. She was just fine the rest of the day...the Tylenol might have helped :)

Summer Days

2011-10-15T08:00:00.000-07:00

Meema and Bumpa came for a visit prior to Annie's Birthday and though it wasn't quite that warm out just yet, our neighbors were playing out in the sun in their swimming pool and we decided to take Annie out for some fun.

Don't you just LOOOVE those legs!!!

She wasn't a fan of the pool. It just wasn't warm enough outside for the hose water to feel like anything but ice water and she panicked every time we put her in the water but she did like to play with the water in a bucket.

At the beginning of the summer we found this great BBQ place called Moore's Halibut House in Harrisville, UT. AHHMAZING!!!! Their halibut is to die for and their prices are fabulous. We just got a platter for 4 and there was enough left over for lunch the next day.

Playing with Bumpa

Helping Dad wash the car. She loves to play with the hose. Sticks it right in her mouth like she knows what to do with it.

This pictures doesn't have any special event tied to it but I thought it summed Annie up just perfectly. She loves to walk through this space between our island in the kitchen and a chair we have backed up to it. She has such a happy demeanor and I feel so lucky to have her. It makes being a Mom SOOO worth it. She makes me laugh all day. I love her to pieces!

It's for you Mom...

2011-10-13T07:57:00.000-07:00

Jared and I have finally upgraded our phones and have retired our old ones to Annie's toy box. She loves walking around with the phone right up to her ear.

Lately, as her vocabulary has started to grow, she has started to walk around with the phone (and sometimes the tv remote) right up to her ear just walking around babbling into the phone.

This one's for you...

p.s. Neal, THAT is a Bateman calf ;)

Meema's House

2011-10-11T08:00:00.000-07:00

Back in July I had signed up to participate in this fabulous homemade craft show called Indie Banditas. Due to Bainbridge not being able to get their act together (STILL) on some road construction we had to cancel the show. I was super bummed about it and had the option to sell at their Christmas Show (which you should go to...Thanksgiving weekend!) but since we're spending Thanksgiving with Jared's family this year, I just didn't think it was fair to take that time away from them. I already had the plane tickets so Annie and I packed up and decided to spend the weekend at Meema's anyway.

First things first....we had to make our mark. This is my fault. I give her free reign on bottom drawers in my house. On a positive note, I've become quite fast at organizing my tupperware drawer and folding dishtowels. Apparently plastic utensils are WAY more fun.

This next series of photos is a crack up to me. We decided to get some pictures of all the grand kids on my side of the family. Sad right? Jared's side has 14 with the 15th on the way. But I tell you what, the little red head in these pictures makes up for about 10 grand kids. She's so full of spunk!

...there's that monkey again...

Meema, Charlotte, Chloe, Bumpa, Annie

We just had to throw Uncle Kyle in the mix. He's such a sap for these girls

Though it was a dissapointment that I didn't get the chance to participate in my first show, it was nice to have a trip that we didn't have anything going on, nothing planned, just a visit. I love the times I can have with my family so this was a nice breather for me.

SHAMELESS PLUG

Determined to sell at a craft show, I signed up to sell at a local one here in UT. So if you live in Northern Utah and feel like coming to the Logan Holiday Gift Show. PLEASE come and support me, even if you come to just say hi :) November 4-5th at the Riverwoods Conference Center in Logan, UT!

Chloe's Visit

2011-10-08T08:00:00.000-07:00

On my way back from Bainbridge, we decided to bring Chloe along and let her spend some time with me in UT. She was here for 11 days and we had a ton of fun. I was so excited to have her here. It was the first since Jared and I got married (she was a flower girl).

Her and her Dad have this odd obsession with IN-N-OUT Burger. I don't get it. It's just a hamburger. She about flipped out when she saw the sign. They don't have any in WA yet.

Since she came to my house, it only seems right that I try and domesticate (craftify) her. So I took her to a fabric store, let her pick out some fabric and I taught her how to sew this purse. She made it almost completely by herself. She started getting a little burned out towards the end but lets be honest, she's ten...eeks 11 today!

And here's the finished product. Don't you love the pose...she is a tween.

Annie and I took her to her first rodeo. We chose the Ogden rodeo, it's my favorite by far. Jared was still working nights so he couldn't join us. Her favorite part? The broncos...me too Chloe... me too.

She insisted on some cotton candy, Annie went nuts over it!

One of my conditions while she stayed at my house was that she had to do her hair everyday. See since my child has decided to not grow hair very fast I feel quite robbed. As long as I let her watch the Disney Channel (ugh!) she let me do it. This was one of my favorites!

I have a good friend that trains horses so I called him up and he was more than happy to let Chloe and I go for a ride. She was nervous but did great!

Annie's first horse ride!

Once we hit the weekend, we packed up the truck and took Chloe to go camping. We had quite an odd summer this year and spring was quite long and wet so there was still snow at the top of the mountain.

We found some fun beaver ponds and decided to go hike around them.

Everyone decided to take a dip. Now I do mean everyone (except Annie of course). Jared stripped down to his skivvies walked slowly in and slowly back out (to avoid stirring up the yucky mud), Chloe stripped down to her t-shirt and underwear and walked right in. It took some convincing but as you'll see below she did end up dunking herself...and me? Well I slipped on a rock and fell in and though Jared and Chloe didn't think it counted I sure as heck did!

Some other fun things we did while she was here included: playing with some girls in my neighborhood for hours at a time, taking one of them to a local swimming pool (and flirting with some boys while they were at it), having a sleep over and painting nails, participating in Activity Days (making some cute Journal Jars), baking yummy banana bread, helping me make dinners at night, etc. We had fun, well I did I hope she did. I'm so glad she was able to come and can't wait for her to visit again.

Thanks for the fun Chloe!!!

Bryce Canyon National Park 2011

2011-10-06T08:05:00.000-07:00

Right after celebrating the 4th of July we headed out with Jared's family for another camping trip. This time south to Ruby's Inn right next to Bryce Canyon National Park. By far my most favorite national park I've been to. The views are just amazing.

Annie and Jared sharing a sandwich in the grass for a break on the drive there

Ready for our hike. Jared's Dad found this backpack at a garage sale...score!

see what I mean by those views?

Little Audrey posing for a picture

Family shot!

I thought this was so cute. Little Noah would just perch himself behind his Mom and would stand on that bar when he wanted to see something.

Tyler posing for a picture!

This is part of our family hiking the other side of the trail. We had a big group hiking together this day. There were 7 adults and 10 kids.

Grandpa had a bum knee so he couldn't come along for the hike but he told the kids if they touched a lizard he would give them $1 each. Jared's eagle eyes found this lizard and I snapped a shot before he hollered to the kids to come see the lizard.

And the crowd engulfed...

Minutes after spotting this sign, it started to pour on us...

Someone bet Jackson to walk across and of course he did it, to be followed quickly by a couple of cousins and his brother

This picture was actually taken because when Jared and I were dating and I joined his family for a family trip, we came to Bryce canyon and I have a picture of me just like this 6 years ago.

Can you see the rain dripping off the rock above?

Here's where we all hung out to wait out the rain storm. See the river running down the path? It was quite a mucky hike back up the mountain...

Jared and some of his neices and nephews pose for a shot

I'm always surprised at how steep the climb is...

Seriously...doesn't that view just make your jaw drop?!?!

Here's all the kiddos mucky shoes after our hike up!

Annie trying out some of the gift store merchandise...

We just couldn't resist...

And Ruby, Annie's Monkey, was born. She loves this monkey. She can even say Monkey now. She never sleeps without it. And if it's in view, she has it tucked in the crook of one of her arms. She walked right up to the stuffed animals, plucked the Monkey off the shelf and started to walk away. There was no convincing her that she should put it back...

Hiking with Dad...

I hiked above this waterfall and most all the kids and uncles hiked below. This is just me looking down at the kids waving.

Farewell Bend State Park

2011-10-05T06:28:00.000-07:00

At the end of June we packed up the car for another car trip. This time to Farewell Bend State Park in Oregon to meet up with my family for our annual camping trip. The first day we got there it was down pouring. So we all made the decision to stay in a hotel for the night instead of setup camp in the rain. Wouldn't you know it, just as we checked in, the rain stopped :)

I figure it was ok because we found this great little (and I mean little) Mexican restaurant that was quite delicious. Much closer to the real thing.

You kind of have to look close but Annie was helping Jared setup our tend. She was getting all the poles out for him...

Once Bumpa arrived she was quick to help him out too :)

Neal and Jared testing out the loop on the bikes :) Oh Jared...

Takin' a break before dinner

Annie checking out the hammock with Dad

We didn't see it until they were quite far off in the distance but I thought this picture was just so cute! Bumpa's quite the sucker for his grandaughters.

Playin' with Bumpa!

Holdin' Mom's hand going for a walk

Watching the fire before bedtime...

...then noticing that Mom was the one with the bottle

Remember the homemade marshmallows I made for Annie's Birthday party? We saved them so we could roast them over the fire. They're not the most beautiful things you've ever seen because the sugar on the outside caramelized but MAN-O-MAN were they yummy with the crunchy sugar shell!

Homemade Crunchy Sugar Shelled Marshmallow Smore!

Mine and Neal's tradition. Everyone else at the campsite wasn't interested...we missed you Kyle. These are very simple to make and we make them every time we go camping. You take a roll of pillsbury biscuit dough, stretch it out wide fill half of it with little marshmallows, fold it over to create your pocket and SEAL IT WELL, fry it in a little bit of olive oil and butter then immediately roll it in cinnamon and sugar...YUMMY!

Our campsite was a little boring so we decided to hop in the cars and head to the local water park. Such a blast! I haven't been to one of those since High School!

Annie's first watermelon...

I think it went over well...

River Rafting on the Snake River. Just look at Jared's face, and the shock on Chloe's :)

Love this picture. Ry was riding front, the group behind us actually dumped two people on this rapid...Awesome.

Meema was a saint and stayed behind to watch Annie so Jared and I could go rafting.

She looks like a tough sit doesn't she?

Beautiful dam completely full and overflowing to the MAX.

Is it terrible that I entertain my child with a highchair and some empty water bottles when I need a break???

Thanks for a fun trip Mom & Dad!!!!

Lake Powell 2011

2011-10-04T06:40:00.000-07:00

This last May Jared, Annie, and I packed our bags, woke up at 4AM and hit the road to spend a week at Lake Powell with some of our good friends. Why leave at this ghastly hour? We were hoping Annie would sleep the whole drive. And being the angel, she is, she did just that very thing.

This is a stop just one hour before our destination. We stopped to have breakfast and gave Annie's little bum a break from her car seat. She enjoyed the opportunity to drive a little :)

Annie warming on the sun deck with dad!

Family picture!!!

Playing in the sand

Eating the sand...which she quickly found out was not food

Peaking over the edge at the water

This trip is where Annie mastered her walking skills. Where better than a rocking boat for a week?!?!

Happy 4th of July!!!

2011-07-04T12:51:00.000-07:00

Don't you love her ruffle flag onesie!!?! The following are only a smattering of the amount of photos it took to get this shot so you could see it clearly. As you can tell...it's blurry anyway.

Layton City Parade!

Amazement at the loud fire trucks...she started yelling back at the sirens :)

I love that her and Jared are making the same face.


Happy 4th!!!!

...I just couldn't resist :)

Annie's One!!!!!!

2011-06-15T22:27:00.000-07:00

I'll eventually get to posting her stats from her 12 month checkup and some fun parlor tricks she's picked up but for now, I'll just post her party. My Mum and Dad came to visit for a week and Mum helped me prepare for the party. As usual I planned on going way over the top. If you ask me, it was a success. I couldn't have done it without my parents here that's for sure! Most the pictures speak for themselves ;)... warning, there are a TON of pictures.

the invitation, made of course using my new Silhouette SD :) :) :)

Mum working diligently on the tissue paper pom poms while I finish up Annette's birthday present...it was fabulous... I'll post that one soon.

I had to add this because Jared came home from work, went into the bedroom, then promptly came out claiming some jelly fish had mated in our bedroom.... I don't even know where he gets this stuff :) but I love it!


making homemade marshmallows! So fabulous!!! They taste so much smoother than the store bo	ught stuff.


The Banner... you might have to click the picture and see a close up to get the full effect.

The spread, from left to right: fruit placed in cups with a spoonful of fruit dip on the bottom, starburst jelly beans, nuts, vanilla cupcakes w/ fresh strawberry buttercream frosting, caramel/chocolate dipped pretzels, homemade marshmallows, chocolate cupcakes w/ almond buttercream frosting...YUM!

Each tulip held the monthly picture I took of her on the quilt I made her.

The marshmallows (we're taking the leftovers with us camping, I'll let you know how they toast up)

I must note that this frosting was sooooo delicious. I could have eaten it on a graham cracker all day...or even just by the spoonful ;)

such a stinker... the headbands don't make it for very long anymore. I keep willing her hair to grow, but nothing happens.

Jared's poor friend. He loves Annie to pieces but today she wasn't having any of it. We think maybe since he rode up to the party on his Harley that she was a bit startled. She usually loves him.

Grandma & Grandpa Griffin!

Blowing out the candle!

It took her a minute to get started.

but once it began

it went quick

before we knew it, half the cake was gone...

Annie helped set up for the party

in the aftermath of her washing... she wasn't very thrilled with me :)

Meema's Visit

2011-06-02T21:42:00.000-07:00

Boy is this post a long time comin'. My Mum came to visit us back in April for some fun girl time.

She flew in on Easter...hence the Easter basket in the background.

We did lots of playing. Our biggest goal was to finish Annie's quiet book. And I must say it is turning out rather darling but MY GOODNESS it's a lot of work. This is why you haven't seen a finished picture of it yet...it's till in my craft room, waiting to be sewn together ;) I promise you'll get pictures when it's finished.

We also managed a trip to IKEA

Don't you love this picture?????

These are ingenious. I went into the handicap stall to use the restroom and they had this funny seat on the back of the door. I had Annie in my arms (don't ask what I was planning to do with her while I used the restroom, I don't think my mind had thought that through), and started laughing hysterically when I got in there. My Mum was in a different stall, and I'm sure she thought I was nuts. Seriously though....so funny. I'm not sure Annie knew what to do about it.

At one point Mum had Annie laughing so hard, she fell over backwards...such a nut!

A trip with Meema just isn't complete without a few trips to Nielsen's...it just wouldn't be right ;)

Activity Day Mother's Day

2011-05-30T08:33:00.000-07:00

So I recently did some freelance excel work for a friend's contracting company and decided I would supremely treat myself with the money I made. So I purchased this...

A Silhouette SD Cutting Machine!!!

I've been looking at the Cricut but just couldn't bring myself to make the investment because of having to purchase the extra cartridges...boooo!!! An investment into the cricut is much deeper than my pocketbook will allow. I've heard a lot of good things about the silhouette so I jumped in and bought one....let me just said this is a purchase that DOES NOT come with buyers remorse.

Enough of my gloating. Here was my first project!

For activity days, we decided to have the girls make paper corsages for their Mom's. I used the silhouette to cut out the flowers and the girls assembled them! They turned out fantastic!!!

Iron and Sugar

2011-05-28T08:11:00.000-07:00

So I've heard that each wedding anniversary has a traditional gift. You know, silver for 25 years, gold for 50 years, etc. Since today is our 6th anniversary, I thought I would look online and see what the traditional gift is for 6 years..... iron and sugar...really? It's like whoever was making these up thought they would just stick with the elements....sugar may not be an official element but we'll just pretend since I'm not a scientist and lets be honest, it should be.

Anyway, Jared and I are enjoying our anniversary amongst friends which I think is sometimes just as much fun. I'll add more on that at a later date but for now, enjoy some fun pictures of us... 6 years ago :)

March of Dimes

2011-05-27T10:52:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, Jared and I had the opportunity to participate in the March of Dimes. His work puts together a team and encourages participation. Since we're up for most anything on a "boring" Saturday (as Jared puts it), we signed right up. After signing up, Jared brought home 3 shirts for us to wear. A large for him, a medium for me, and a small for Annie. Great, right??? Wrong...an ADULT small for Annie. Are these people for real? My daughter go looking like some homeless child?

Seriously Mom? I can't find my arm....

I think not!!!! As usual, I went overboard and gussied up my little angel...but boy was she the star of the show. People just couldn't get enough of her ;)

I based my design off of this tutorial I found perusing the results of my google search.

But instead of adding the rosettes to the bottom, I added a bunch of ruffles! I might have been squealing at the results....maybe :)

Such a ham!

Just look at that good lookin' matchy matchy family ;)

Annie's Nursery

2011-05-24T20:23:00.000-07:00

So Annie's turning a year and I finally finished her nursery. Slow going, I know but I just couldn't decide on the curtains and it wasn't complete without something above her crib and my Mum came up with the perfect solution.

I ended up LOVING the curtains. I was skeptical as you don't normally choose pistachio as the color for curtains but I really love how it ties the bedding into the room.

Jared painted the room, as it used to be blue. He also painting the glider rocker and reupholstered it with a dark brown suede fabric. I made the window valance and the curtains.

Don't you love this?!?! For the longest time, I just couldn't figure out what I wanted above her crib. My Mum found a great Groupon deal to Dali Decals and we bought this cute bird set. You can't really tell from the picture but there are black birds and pistachio green birds too. The green ones show up the best on the brown half of the wall.

I'm not going to lie, I saw this changing table on someone elses blog (cough...Tiff...cough) and loved it. So it might not be original but I loved being able to use baskets for storage. My Mum donated the shelves and bought me the beautiful artwork for Mother's Day last year.

Close up of the artwork. It's just so sweet!

Enlarge, if you can't see. This is my other favorite wall. I have the birdies perched on the trim around her closet.

More birdies...and of course, the ribbon board.

My Dad stated it perfectly when he said "it's more like a piece of art". Well said Dad...well said.

I've actually had requests to make these for people. Truthfully, I stole the idea off of another friends blog. But I made mine HUGE. I don't even have all her bows on here because I ran out of room :)


My favorite little birdie....aren't they cute???

Tiered Cupcake Tray

2011-05-21T15:10:00.000-07:00

So I found this really fun tutorial online to make your own cupcake holders and new that I MUST have them for Annie's Birthday Party in June. My Mum was in town and we decided to get some plates and make them... turns out we didn't have to make them at all... Jared just took over :)

he wasn't thrilled when I got out the camera :)

This one actually isn't mine. I ended up making this one for Jared's Mom for Mother's Day but thought it deserved it's own cameo.

11 Months

2011-05-19T22:31:00.000-07:00

Well I'm waaay behind on my blogging and eventually I'll get caught up but I've been super busy crafting away to keep up with my shop, my new toy (eeeeeee!!!), cute new outfits for my neighbors new baby girls and of course my brand new baby niece (I'll be showing the goods soon, I hope).

I've done quite well updating every new month for Annie's growth and it's more for me to be able to journal about it than anything else but she's so super busy these days, finding time to do anything is nearly impossible but here goes (side note: I should be in bed so disregard any nonsense that may appear).

Annie is more than excelling these days learning different signs. I'll be honest with you though, I might think she's a prodigy but I don't know that she quite understands what she's signing. If you say the word, she'll sign it but for example, she will sign "more" even if she really doesn't want more...silly girl! But so far, we have learned: more, all done, and drink. She claps, blows kisses (more of a little rascals style wave at her mouth), waves, and even tries itsy bitsy spider.

Don't you love these capris?!?! Poor thing is doomed to be as short as I am but they sure look cute anyway!

Playin' on the swing with her cousin!

Annie's still a big eater. Some times it blows me away at how much she eats. I made pizza one night and she ate a piece all by herself. Maybe I'm crazy, but for someone so small, that seems like a lot of food. The only food she's turned away from so far is ketchup...I know!!!! What will she dip her food in???!? Other than that, she will eat anything you place in front of her. In the past few weeks I've started introducing her to more dairy and she is loving it. Truthfully, I'm just glad she's not allergic. I'm pretty sure that it would be a sin to be a Griffin and be allergic to milk....right Grandpa???

Look at that grin! It's hard to say no to this, she honestly just brings so much joy into our home.

I'm sad to see her start to lose some of her outgoingness (I might have just made up that word). She still smiles and now waves at anything that looks at her but lately it seems as though she gets quite nervous and panics when Jared or I aren't present. It's a bit disconcerting, especially if we ever have hopes of leaving her with a sitter, but I'm hoping it's just a phase. I will say though, that along with her needyness comes some much loved cuddles. I LOVE her little cuddles, it just makes my heart melt.

Biggest news of all!!!! We're just about walking. By her 11 month, Annie frequently stands up all by herself and would take the occasional step. Just about a week later and she's taking 6-8 at a time!

See ya later!

Mommy Day

2011-05-09T15:10:00.000-07:00

My first...and I'm not going to lie, it started out pretty lonely. I'm grateful Jared has a job but sometimes it sure gets in the way. His schedule is Sunday, Monday, Thursday, Friday....booooo.

So we celebrated Saturday night....Jared started of the night with these lovely flowers

Then took me out to the deck to show me the rest of my Mother's Day...

ok seems like an odd gift but our old ones....the white ones in the background seemed to have oxidized from all the sun and they leave an icky white dust on your arms every time you sit in them so we were in major need of some upgrades.

EASTER!

2011-04-23T20:21:00.000-07:00

Confession...I snapped over 30 pictures of my little pea in this fabulous dress that I found 55% off! Yipee!

Seriously...what was I thinking? Shoes are for eating, not for wearing!

Piglet Tails

2011-04-18T09:00:00.000-07:00

I spy with my little eye...

Can you see them!??!

I just couldn't resist!

Jared said they were too small to be dubbed pig tails so we've named them piglet tails....eeeeeek!

Trickery

2011-04-16T21:12:00.000-07:00

I'm not a mean Mom for videoing this, it's actually quite cute. She just gets so angry that she can't open the cabinet doors...

So here's the story... She finally got to the point that she realized she can open the cabinets in the kitchen. The drawers were easily taken care of by this trusty yard stick...

If I had knobs on my doors, it would be no big deal. I'd just snap a few rubber bands over the knobs but we have handles so I had to install those annoying "inside the door" baby proof thingys. She was not thrilled when she realized that she couldn't open them anymore.

Above was my first solution to the problem but she started to bite the end of the spoon and slide it right out....stinker!

New Product!

2011-04-13T15:58:00.000-07:00

Guess what you can find at Opie Designs???

Aren't these great?!?! They are my diaper changing pad clutches.

I just put a whole bunch of them on my etsy site.

Go and have a look!

10 Months

2011-04-11T21:10:00.000-07:00

I can't even believe in just two short months my sweet little baby will be a one year old!

Annie is just weeks from walking. She's so quick!!! The last two days she's been getting more and more daring with her balance. Sometimes she just lets go of things and stands there for awhile. She'll take steps while you hold onto one of her hands and sometimes even tries to take a step between Jared and I.

She's still a great eater and hasn't refused anything yet!...except maybe the peaches we froze last summer but upon tasting the thawed out fruit myself, I noticed they were quite bitter (I don't blame her for spitting them out!). She's mastered the sippy cup and discovered how to drink out of a straw. One of my favorite Annie tricks becomes apparent at meal time. It's almost impossible to hold a conversation because she sings as she eats. And it's not quiet by any means. I'm not sure where she picked it up from but she just goes on and on, it's such a hoot!

Annie is all about the silly faces these days. The one pictured below is our latest favorite. She started doing it while I was out of town visiting my family and now she mimics us when we do it to her. The best is the noise she makes while pulling the face... kind of similar to a walrus or a seal.

Suddenly, she's become more involved with books. Without prompting from me she'll grab one of her books and just start flipping through the pages. I'll be so excited when she'll actually sit through a whole reading of one.

Annie still just adores her daddy. One of these days I'll have to video her reaction when he comes home. She'll hear the garage door open and just stare at the door until he peeks through the door frame. Once she sees him, she'll start to hyperventilate and beelines it to him. He'll go into the bedroom to change out of his work clothes and she'll just follow him right in.

Flying is one of her new favorite tricks....I don't even know what else to say about this...

Annie's learned how to clap! Well sort of.... While visiting my Grandma, we noticed she would bring her hands together and wave them up and down. It wasn't until I started singing patty cake to her and she did this again that I realized this was her version of clapping. Below is a video of her doing it with my Dad.

Monkey Baby Quilt

2011-03-29T14:38:00.000-07:00

My cousin, Kyra, is expecting her second baby boy sometime around May and since I decided to make a quilt for all the grandbabies on my side of the family (since there are almost 14 on Jared's side) it was time for another quilt. The last one I made for her was airplane themed. We went with monkeys this time...

If you click on the picture for a closeup you can see the cute little monkeys on the light green fabric.

Congrat's Tyler & Kyra. I hope your little snuggler enjoys the blanket!

When one is just not enough

2011-03-27T10:13:00.000-07:00

Though Annie really prefers just the green soothie binky when she sleeps, I throw in a couple of different kinds in her crib to keep her busy if she happens to wake up in the night. This morning I found this...

If you look close you can tell that she's holding a pink binky in her mouth with another white one below it and when I picked her up there was another binky in her other hand.

The other day, she woke up from a nap particularly early and she was just babbling to herself in her crib. I decided to creep up on her and see what she was up to. I almost laughed out loud when I saw her with 3 binkies in front of her and she was spitting one out and replacing it with another over and over again as if she was testing out which one she liked the best. This kept her busy for a good ten minutes or so. Such a nut :)

CAKE

2011-03-25T10:09:00.000-07:00

Remember this cake I made for St. Patrick's Day?

I had a little helper in the kitchen with me...someone has a taste for the good stuff!!!!

no...I didn't let her lick it clean. In fact she really didn't know what to do with the beater...I'll teach her some day ;) Though I will say, a little bit of a hissy fit ensued when I took it away. Someday, my dear, some day :)

Friends

2011-03-23T09:56:00.000-07:00

I had the opportunity to watch a friends little girl for the day and it was so fun to see how Annie interacts with other kids. Nina is about 18 months (I think) so the age difference is a little less than a year but they played so cute together.

Patty's Day Treats

2011-03-21T09:58:00.000-07:00

I failed as a crafter in making Annie a cute outfit for St. Patrick's Day but I tried to make up for it by baking the day away :)

First I made this Irish Soda Bread. Which was good but too dry for Jared's palette. Is it supposed to be kind of dry? He doesn't like raisins so I substituted Walnuts for the raisins...wonder if that makes a difference.

Then, of course, I made corned beef and red mashed potatoes with a yummy country gravy. That is a must around here. Fun story behind this meal. The weekend Jared and I got engaged, my parents and little brother traveled south to Logan for the holiday (it was president's day weekend). We promised my little brother some snowboarding and unbeknownst (I'm pretty sure I made up that word) to me, Jared was talking with my Dad about marrying me. Anyway, Jared made dinner for us one night and it was corned beef and potatoes. My little brother still talks about it. He thought he had died and gone to heaven. All in one meal, I'm pretty sure Kyle was okay with me marrying Jared.

And for dessert! I made a silver white cake from scratch and filled the layers with a green butter cream frosting and piped little clovers on the top. Jared made fun when he noticed all my clovers only had 3 leaves on them....whoops! I guess it's not a very lucky cake ;)

p.s. this is my 200th post!!!!!

9 Months

2011-03-19T09:56:00.000-07:00

My happy little pea is 9 months and since I delivered her about a month early, she's officially been "alive" for as long as I carried her in the womb. Weird. I feel like pregnancy was so much longer than this.

monkey see, monkey do?

It amazes me how much Annie learns and masters in just one month. She catches on to things so quickly these days.

New tricks we've learned:
-understands signs (more & all done)
-sometimes says "more"
-gives fives (this is absolutely adorable, I promise to get this on video soon)
-walking while holding our fingers
-pulls up on furniture like a pro and holds on with one hand to squat and pick up a toy
-saying mama and dada
-attempting to cruise along furniture
-eating any piece of food placed in front of her. She loves to grab at the little pieces...though usually more than one go in at a time (such a porker)

Here's the newest trick. She loves to grab the towels off the oven and suck on them...as a result, I change them much more often than I used to :)

Doctor's Stats
- Height: 26 3/4" (25%)
- Weight: 17 lb 7 oz (25%)
Though she seems small to me, I was glad to see that she's crawling up on the percentage charts. I fear she'll just be small her whole life but with a mom like me, I suppose it was bound to happen. The doctor was surprised to hear all her fun little parlor tricks. It seems she is right on board with her development.

This was a crack up. Annie decided to crawl into this basket and managed to get herself high centered. At one point her arms and legs were flailing all at once...oh my I was almost crying.

My New Toy

2011-03-12T07:57:00.000-08:00

About 6 years ago for Christmas my parents bought me a camera. At that time it could have been considered fancy. By todays means, it was a dinosaur. But I loved it. It was a huge block of a camera produced 3.2 mega pixel shots and it worked like a charm. I've had no desire to replace it....

and then it happened....I placed it into my diaper bag and when I went to retrieve it a couple of days later a huge crack was in the display screen :( I was devastated. This camera had been my faithful friend and let's be honest, It still worked and took great pictures but have any of you tried to take a picture by looking through the little hole??? After having the screen it's just impossible.

So Jared promised that when we received our tax return I could buy a new one. I wanted the same camera. I laughed a little when upon researching mega pixels, the smallest you could find was 10...boy was my camera outdated. I found a newer version of my canon powershot and this is what was purchased:

I'm quite aware that it's pink. This was not my intention but I went to buy the same camera online (different color) and wondered if they had it in store...I wanted it now. Upon calling the store it turned out they had one in store and it was $30 off because it was an online return. I could care less that it was pink (I called Jared and all he cared about was saving the $30) so I snatched up that little pink cutie.

And what better than to have this little cutie as your first test subject :)

Video Roundup

2011-03-05T11:43:00.000-08:00

This video was taken a little over a month ago so she's a much more proficient crawler now but this was the first video I got of her crawling.

Annie goes through some funny phases. I'm sure some of the noises she makes just sound so interesting. I think they're great for some good entertainment. She went through a phase where she just squeaked all the time. Glad I caught it on video since it only lasted a week....

Another funny phase....she cackles. Sometimes she does her cute little laugh but for some reason she's all about cackling these days.

Yet another phase. One night after we had eaten, Annie was just sitting in her highchair and all of a sudden started spitting like crazy. She did it for about ten minutes straight. I'm not sure what made her do it but it was super funny.

Jared always knows how to get a good laugh out of Annie...

I love giving her new things to eat. These peaches were too cute...

She thinks these slippers are just too funny...I'll be honest, who doesn't?!?!

She gets into all sorts of mischief these days. I try to "corral" her from the tile since she still isn't really stable and takes tumbles here and there but she manages to find her way back over to it...

Meal times these days seem like a scream fest. She's not angry or anything, she just thinks if she screams, the food will come faster...most times it does. So I'm trying to teach her to say "more". It's coming along, though most the time it just sounds like "maaa" and she slaps her hand on her tray...so demanding!

This ones for TyTy. Annie's first experience with Spaghetti and she went to town. I love how she says "nom nom". We've been teaching her that one too :)

Activity Days

2011-03-02T08:37:00.000-08:00

I'm loving my new calling. I just got called as an Activity Days Leader. These girls are so fun...and quite creative. I love seeing what they come up with.

The last activity... Hair flowers. After they made their flowers, they had a fashion show. They are so cute with Annie too. I don't have to worry about her one bit.

These two just pass her back and forth the whole time...Future babysitters???

Any good ideas for Activity Days? I could do crafts all year but they need more than that. I would love to hear what others have done!

tippy toes

2011-02-28T08:33:00.000-08:00

Does anyone else think she's waaaay too little to be able to achieve this???

I love this. Check out those bitty feet!!! Nothing is safe anymore. She even attempted to go from one piece of furniture to the next tonight...

Peek-a-boo

2011-02-26T08:32:00.000-08:00

...I'll let you create your own caption on this one, I'm just glad I had the camera close to capture it.

Valentines Craft

2011-02-24T20:31:00.000-08:00

Yes.. it's after valentines day but I did a craft that I'm quite proud of and I believe if I worked hard on something it deserves a whole month... not just half of one :)

Here was my Valentine's Day craft. I LOVE how they turned out. I was originally only going to do one big heart but Ben Franklin was out of their big ones so I settled for three little ones and I'm glad they were out of the big ones!

Inspiration found here...but I added the black sequin in the middle to give it a little bit of glamour.

Snuggly

2011-02-20T07:48:00.000-08:00

I love this picture.

Annie is at such a fun stage right now. She just loves to snuggle right into our shoulders. I'm so glad I captured it. Jared calls it "getting all snuggly". It makes my heart happy :)

Valentine's Day Yummyness

2011-02-18T07:30:00.000-08:00

So last year I cooked Jared and I a pretty fabulous Chinese food feast on Valentine's Day. Since I like to go over the top on the Holidays, I decided to host a Valentine's Dinner this year. This would be the first time that we've had a group over and I've cooked the whole meal. Usually we do a big potluck but I wanted a challenge (by the end of the day, my feet were not appreciative of being in the kitchen all day long).

Jared's best friend and his wife have moved into their parent's house temporarily while they remodel their home so I thought it would be nice to have them over. His brother found out about it and promptly invited himself and his girlfriend to dinner the day of...YIKES! Good thing I already had my menu planned!

This years theme....Comfort Food!

Jacksonville Carrots

...probably not a recipe I would revisit. It just wasn't that awesome.

Honey Game Hens

...Paula Deen you do not disappoint! These turned out fabulous! I've never cooked cornish games hens but they were on sale at Smiths and I thought it would be a fun challenge. They were delish!

Ultimate Twice Baked Potatoes

...words do not express the delicious melt in your mouth goodness that these were. I would go so far as to say they were the star of the dinner table. Oh my goodness.....

Grown Up Mac and Cheese

...the flavor in these is really really good. I added too many noodles. So if you make this one, stick to the recipe if you want them really cheesy!

Double Chocolate Bread Pudding with Chocolate Whipped Topping

...Miss Paula, you know how to raise those boys! I must apologize for the picture, I forgot to take one before I started eating it. It....was....amazing. I could make this every day and not get sick of it. If you don't mind the calories DO IT! This one is definitely going in the recipe book. YUM YUM YUM!

Of course I was so worried about getting pictures of the food I missed the opportunity to grab pictures of the guests. The night was a success. I even got Jared to do the dishes the next morning ;) And I currently have requests to make it a tradition. We'll see...Annie is at a manageable age now but in a year??? we'll see.

8 Months

2011-02-16T09:52:00.000-08:00

My baby girls has grown so much in the last month alone.

She is a full time crawler now. No more army heave ho! Hand and knees it is. She's already begun to pull herself up on our furniture. It looks so funny with her little body. It just doesn't seem as though she's big enough to be doing this stuff yet! She's even started taking little uncoordinated steps when she's holding onto our fingers.

She eats any baby food we put near her mouth. She's like a little bird. As soon as a spoon comes near her face, open her mouth goes, it's so cute. She's starting to understand the whole "hand to mouth" food method. For now, she can pick it up but can't quite get the concept of opening her hand to let go of the food. It just gets her frustrated. But we're workin' on it.

She likes to walk around in her walker and especially loves to crawl to me. In her eyes, Jared and I are just human jungle gyms.

Still no teeth but I think I see a couple of little white dots on her bottom gums. She's always been a drooler so I guess it's really just a guessing game.

She loves to say dada and the only time she's said mama is when she's so upset and wants to be picked up. It's rather pathetic really. It's like this slow sad crawl and she just wimpers and says "mama mama". It melts my heart.

Yep! That's her very first pony tail!!!

She's such a pleasure to have around. She's discovered her hands and toes recently. She likes to watch her little fists move up and down and when I don't have socks on her feet, those little toes move promptly to her mouth.

She's become a little bit of a "mama's girl" recently to my dismay. Though I love that she wants me, I'd rather she be ok to not be held by me ALL THE TIME. I try not to pick her up too much so that she can be independent but really...with her little face, it's hard not to oblige.

Bath time is so much fun. She's discovered how much fun splashing the water is. It still alarms her sometimes but she loves to kick and splash with her hands.

And the best news of all....she's only getting up once in the night!!!! HOORAY!!!!
I feel awful though, I finally just had to let her cry herself to sleep. You know, before you have a baby you think, oh that's no big deal at all. Well I've got news for you...it is! Until now, I would have this anxiety. Is she cold? Is she hungry? Does she need a diaper change? Is she sick?
I finally bought a book. It had some good advice. At this age, as long as they are well fed before they go to bed, they should be able to sleep through the night without having to get up for a feeding. I'm done nursing now, so I know how much she's getting before she goes to bed and Jared and I "barricaded" her window with quilts and blankets because it was letting in a TON of cold air so I know she's not getting too cold. So we went for it. And it's worked! It took about a week to get there but she only cries about once a night. And it's usually because she's rolled herself away from her binkie and she can't find it (I know, that's something we'll have to wean later but I'm sleeping now...we'll talk about that when it's time).

My Only Sunshine

2011-02-13T08:00:00.000-08:00

About a month ago, Annie and I left this handsome man behind (the one on the right...sorry Riv you're just not my type) and ventured to the Great Northwest to spend a week of fun and enjoyment at my parent's house.

Ry was so cute with Annie, he set up a barrier of pillows so that she couldn't get into anything she shouldn't and then he proceeded to hover "just to make sure". I can't wait until he has kids...

Mum and I made these great rag tags. Annie likes to suck on the tags of all of her toys. A good friend told us about these rag tags...genius! She loves them, I made two!

Dinner time is not Jared's favorite. I love stripping her down to her diaper and letting her enjoy her dinner. Why not?!?! Peas are waaay too fun to not smoosh around a bit :)

This is a new face...I'm glad I caught it on camera. I'm not sure where she got it from but sometimes it shows up right before she starts to pout.

She started sucking on her reflection on the dishwasher. She kept on patting it and smiling at her reflection. It was too funny.

Side lying beauty pose...notice the binky. For the past seven months, all Annie has done is chew on her binky. The day we arrived in Seattle, she started actually sucking on it! She now takes a binky when she's tired and will actually put herself back to sleep with it...AMAZING!

This is what happens to my Mum's Kitchen table when I come to visit. Sorry Mum, but we did have fun right? The weeks crafts included, tag rags, bracelets, earrings, and the thought that a quiet book would get started (more on that to come!).

Annie did this a couple of times. Apparently even just an hour time change was a bit much for her...

My sweet little niece Charlotte. She's such a little firecracker. She saw this fun flower I was wearing in my hair and decided that she wanted to try it out. Don't you just love that red hair!?!?! I'd like to note that this is the only time I've even been able to convince her to put something in her hair! One of my favorite things about her is when you ask her a question and her answer is yes she never says, "yah" it's always "yes" and it's a very confident yes. There's just something funny about a little 3 year old being so proper, it's so dang cute!

Bathing in Meema's big tub!

Look at that binky!!! Who's child is this?!?!

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this picture!!! These are all of my parent's grandchildren. Three BEAUTIFUL girls! 7 months, 3 years, and 10 years old

On the ferry on our way back home...

Uncle TyTy didn't want to let Annie go. He tried to convince me to leave her behind....ha right, and you let me know how the first poopy diaper goes...

Posing for the camera with Bumpa!

A beautiful sunset greeted me as we landed back home in Utah. Though I've flown more times than I can count, it's always a wondrous sight to see a sunset from an airplane. Annie was amazing on all the flights we were on. She snuggled right up into my arms and slept the whole time. Such a great little traveler!

My Darlin'

2011-02-10T21:48:00.000-08:00

I remember very clearly the first time I had Annie all to myself. She was two or three days old...maybe just one. Jared's buddies were all getting together at Wingers and since only my meal was free at the hospital, I told him to go get some fresh air. I asked the nurses to bring my baby to me.

I held her close.

I kissed her beautiful itty bitty head

I cried.

But most definitely not tears of sadness. I was so happy. So life alteringly happy. All I've ever wanted in this life is to be a Mom. I've known it my whole life. It's what I am here for, what I am destined to be. I know it as surely as I know God lives. I felt as though my life had been turned upside down when I found out it wouldn't be easy to get pregnant. By now I had planned on having two kids.

But in the moment alone with my sweet baby girl, snuggled into my chest with the lights dimmed I snuggled her back and promised her the world. Promised her that no matter what and no matter how, she would always be loved and I would always be there for her and be her very best friend.

I heard this song today. It's called My Darling and it's sung by Ryan Tanner. It made me think of this moment. A moment shared by only Annie and myself. She will never remember this moment, but I will never forget it.

My Darlin'

Go back to sleep now
My darlin
And I'll keep all the bad dreams away
Breathe now, think sweet things
And I'll think of all the right words to say

Because we made you
My darlin
With the love in each of our hearts
We were a family, my darlin
Right from the start

Grow up now
My darlin
Please don't you grow up too fast
And be sure, my darlin
To make all the good times last

Because we made you
My darlin
With the love in each of our hearts
We were a family, my darlin
Right from the start