Kari and Jonathan's Story

Valentine's Day

2012-02-14T09:02:00.002-07:00

Happy Valentine's Day! We "celebrated" last night, because in typical Tuesday style, Jonathan had to work today from 11am-9pm. We're going to drag it out a little bit, because who doesn't love to drag out holidays? Last night we exchanged [unexpected] gifts, today we won't do anything, but since tomorrow is his day off we'll go out to a nice dinner and then go get ice cream with the Valentine Dairy Queen gift card we got from my parents. Yay! Here are our gifts from tonight:

Cupcakes I made for him (Thanks pinterest!)

Beautiful necklace he bought me. Yes, Kirsta, I got choked up when I read the bottom

Addilyn's new stuffed dog

Jonathan also bought Amelia a coloring book with colored pencils and a sticker pad with Valentine stickers, but I didn't get a picture of them coloring together.

I hope you all have a great day, even if you think Valentine's is a totally bogus holiday.

Also, Happy birthday to my amazing brother, Karl! We love you and can't wait to see you in March!

What a sucker

2012-02-10T12:39:00.003-07:00

Addilyn is 2 days shy of being 4 months old, which is amazing, and she sucks her thumb! For now, I think it's the cutest thing in the world. She doesn't necessarily do it for self soothing yet, just whenever she's chillin' it seems to pop into her mouth. I'm not going to try to intervene, because I think it'll be great for her to have a soother, although I might be really frustrated in a couple years when we're trying to break her of the habit. After the "sippy cup incident" with Amelia (she still won't drink milk) I'm trying to just let things be as they are, even if they annoy me, or I want them to be different. Also, I'm not worried about Addilyn messing up her teeth because I know people that sucked their thumb and have great teeth, and I know people who didn't suck their thumb and have bad teeth. Either way, if her teeth get messed up, we'll fix them. :) Anyway~ here's a picture of the thumb sucking in action:

Cute, cute, cute.

Survey says...

2012-02-06T19:17:00.003-07:00

I love surveys! So I stole this from Elsha :)

A to Z

A. Age: 26

B. Bed size: A Queen. Don't really ever want to go bigger and definitely don't want to go smaller.

C. Chore that you hate: Mopping the kitchen. It's one of those things that's ALWAYS on the list but NEVER gets done. It's so easy and fast when I do do it, but I just hate it! Also, making the bed, which I don't really consider a chore because I don't do it. Ever.

D. Dogs: Nope. Never. Sorry kids.

E. Essential start to your day: When I'm pregnant it's a bowl of cereal (which is about the only time I eat cold cereal). When it's winter it's a cup of cocoa or apple cider.

F. Favorite color: Pink

G. Gold or silver: Silver

H. Height: 5'6"

I. Instruments that you play: None. I have played the piano and the cello in my life, and I wish I played something now. I hope more than anything that my kids are musical.

J. Job title: Homemaker- hardest job in the world.

K. Kids: Amelia- 2 1/2, Addilyn- almost 4 months.

L. Live: Pueblo, Colorado

M. Mother's name: Linda

N. Nicknames: Jonathan calls me Bum Bum sometimes, and I'm only telling you that because the secret was already leaked on my candy letter post. My dad and a few others call me Kare Bear.

O. Overnight hospital stays: 2008 my gallbladder attacked me and I got it taken out. What a relief. 2009 Amelia was born- stayed 2 nights. 2011 Addilyn was born- stayed 2 nights.

P. Pet peeves: People that take their sick kids out into the world to infect everyone else. (Barfing sick)

Q. Quote from a movie: "That is not a delicious beverage, it's a knife!" -Dane Cook

R: Right or left handed: Right

S: Siblings: Two older brothers, two older sisters

T: Time of day: I love the morning, starting around 8 or 9. I love to get a lot done in the morning and then relax the rest of the day. And I especially love getting up really early to leave for road trips.

U. Underwear: Umm, yes I wear it.

V. Vegetable(s) you hate: I don't HATE anything. I prefer not to eat mushrooms too often, and I've never had beets or brussel sprouts.

W. What makes you run late: I try REALLY hard not to be late. I would say 99.9% of the time I'm on time (5 minutes early).

X. X-rays you've had: I'm pretty sure I've only had dental.

Y. Yummy food that you make: I try to make yummy food every day! I cook almost 7 days a week, every week, and my goal is to make it yummy :)

Z. Zoo animal: I don't love the zoo. I'm of the opinion that if you've seen one you've seen them all. That being said, we'll probably get a pass to the Pueblo Zoo this summer because I don't want to deprive Amelia.

Amelia the mother

2012-01-31T19:20:00.004-07:00

The other morning we had just gotten done eating some toast for breakfast and the 3 of us girls went to sit in the chair in the living room and read books. At one point I looked down at Amelia and smiled and she just stared at me for a minute and then said, "Umm, you have someding wight dere." And pointed at my tooth. WAIT, did my 2 year old just tell me I had toast in my teeth?! Yep. A few minutes later Addilyn started to fuss and she said, "Be patient, sister!" Which is what I'm always telling Amelia to do. Another minute later we started playing peek-a-boo. Amelia would put her blanket over Addilyn's face, Addilyn would start talking up a storm, then Amelia would take the blanket off and yell "Peek-a-boo" and Addilyn would get this huge grin on her face. That lasted about 6 rounds and in one particularly talkative turn Amelia said, "She's freaking out, Mom!" Haha. What a hoot she is these days. If only I wrote down all the crazy things she says throughout the day. Maybe I'll have to start.

We moved!

2012-01-31T17:54:00.004-07:00

Tricked ya. We did move, but just to our basement. We got an idea the other day that it would be good to have the girls rooms both upstairs so they could be close to each other and share that bathroom, and it would work better as a guest bathroom anyway since it's on the main floor. Jonathan and I like the bathroom in the basement better because it's bigger and warmer (because there's no window), plus the water heater is in it so the water in the shower stays hotter longer. In the four years we've lived here I've never wanted our room to be in the basement, until the other day, and then it sounded like the greatest idea ever. The room has carpet, which I love! I thought the hard wood floors made our room so cold. When we were upstairs I had my closet in our room and Jonathan's closet was in Amelia's room, but downstairs there are 2 closets (that we had full of storage) so now all our stuff is in OUR room. So far it's wonderful, and I can't really see that changing anytime soon. Let's just not have any more kids while we're in this house, because we're out of space! :)

Here are some before and after pictures.

The view from the door (excuse the mess)

A little to the left

A little more to the left

And here's what it looks like now:

View from the door. Changing table, cradle, dresser.

A little to the left is the guest bed.

I'd like to thank my wonderful husband for playing along with my wild hairs and moving all this heavy furniture up and down the stairs with little to no help from me.

Now if Addilyn would sleep through the night so I could quit walking up and down the stairs all night that would be great!

The big 33

2012-01-24T13:32:00.003-07:00

Happy Birthday, Jonathan! Yesterday, that is. Nothing too exciting went on, just a regular Monday. He worked, I made a trip to Walgreens to make him this:

He thought it was the COOLEST thing in the whole world, because he'd never seen one, and then I had to ruin it by telling him that I'd made one before. Dang, should have stuck to the, "I just made up this entire concept this morning. How clever am I?!" Anyway~ he's a candy lover, so that should hold him over for a little while. Then our friend came over and brought us 2 pies, and then we settled in to watch The Bachelor. Exciting times.

Many more happy years to come, Jonathan!

Blessing

2012-01-18T15:52:00.004-07:00

On Jan 8th we had Addilyn's blessing at church. Jonathan gave it to her, which was so wonderful. We didn't have any of my family in town (sad!) but his mom and Tom were able to come, so that was great!

Here she is in her beautiful blessing dress, which was actually MY blessing dress as a baby, and if you'll remember, Amelia wore it too!

For a refresher, here's Amelia wearing it. Holy crap she looks like Jonathan!!

Anyway~ the running joke of the blessing was that Jonathan said, "May you be a good sister. Both a younger sister (looooooong pause) and an older sister." So after the blessing was over my friend turned around and said, "Well, I guess you guys are having 3 kids!" :)

Phelps/ Norwood Family Pictures

2012-01-14T14:23:00.007-07:00

Seriously, are you guys sick of us getting our pictures taken yet?? Haha. Hopefully not, because Amelia and Addilyn will be getting more taken this week.

Anyway~ for one of Melody and Tom's Christmas presents we got them a family photo session. We thought this would be a great gift since, in the 5 years that they've been married, they have never had a shoot! And you all know that Jonathan and I get one about every 6 months. :) It worked out perfectly since Jeff and Whitney were in town from Boston this past week. My friend Tara took them for us down at the train station and I think they turned out great!

Grandma and Grandpa Norwood

Jonathan's older brother, Justin

Jonathan's younger brother, Jeff and his girlfriend (of 5 years) Whitney

That's us

Mama Melody and her sons

All the girlies

I hope you enjoyed. :)

60 degrees and a snowman

2012-01-10T10:00:00.001-07:00

While I was in Grand Junction there was a huge snow storm here. This is what it looked like at our house:

So, you can imagine that even with the nice weather that followed, it took a while to melt. In fact, I think we still have some in our yard where there isn't much sun. Anyway~ a couple weeks later we were over at Melody and Tom's house and they still had a small patch of snow in their yard, even though the reason we were outside was because it was gorgeous and Amelia was playing on her swing set. Well, they got to playing in the little bit of snow that was there and decided to make a snowman. Tell me what you notice about this next picture:

Melody is wearing a tank top! Haha. I'm telling you, it was gorgeous outside. Obviously the snow was still cold so they had to wear gloves to make the snowman but we laughed about how weird the Colorado weather is.

What a beauty.

Blankets

2012-01-07T14:30:00.004-07:00

For those of you who know Amelia personally, you know that she is VERY attached to her 2 blankets that Grandma Denise made her. Jonathan is a little worried that she'll want to take them to college with her. I say who cares if she does? Well, he does. Anyway~ that's not the point. The point is that the other morning she wanted to snuggle on my bed, under her blankets, with baby sister! A first for the sharing of the blankets so of course I had to take pictures.

This is a great step considering that a couple weeks ago her blanket was in the baby's swing and we were all sitting down to dinner so I put Addilyn in the swing, on top of the blanket, and Amelia immediately burst out crying.

Giggles

2012-01-04T18:04:00.002-07:00

The greatest thing happened the other day! I made Addilyn giggle! How, you ask? I snorted at her, of course. :) Works every time. Jonathan even caught it on video and it was so cute. And then Amelia deleted the video. DANG IT. So of course I've been trying to get her to giggle every day since then and catch it on video again. Then last night Amelia was just randomly playing with her and she was loving it! Check it out:

So, while I mourn the loss of the first video, this one is still pretty cute.

I'm back!

2012-01-03T15:29:00.004-07:00

Well that month flew by, didn't it? Now it's 2012, and we'd better make it a good year just in case the world ends in December. Jonathan and I aren't the kind of people who make New Years resolutions because we think that just sets you up for disappointment and guilt. It's like saying you'll eat healthy your entire pregnancy, and then realize that pregnancy is a freaking long time and that Taco Bell and ice cream just sound SO good. We're just hoping for a great year with a happy and healthy family.

Our Christmas was wonderful, thanks for asking. Here's an ironic story: People had been asking us for a while what we wanted for Christmas. We were having SUCH a hard time coming up with anything, and I felt bad asking for stuff just to get stuff, ya know? Anyway, our computer had been having some problems like randomly shutting off and taking FOREVER to load anything. So, we had thought about asking for a gift card toward a new computer. Well, when my dad came to visit in October he changed a few of the settings and Jonathan did a whole computer restore, and then everything was all better. No more gift card needed. Except when we returned home from Grand Junction on the 27th, our computer wouldn't turn on. Nada. It ended up being the battery pack (thanks Brian, for helping us!) which wasn't too bad, but I guess we should've asked for a $60 Best Buy gift card. Haha.

Here are a few recent pictures to keep you guys interested:

Grandma with the magic touch of ALWAYS putting her to sleep

Me and the girls all in pink

My new quilt made by Melody. She actually made it a few years ago and I've had my eye on it ever since. I would've been devastated if she'd given it away!

I'm going to post an entire album of Christmas pictures on facebook, so if you're just dying to see more, go check them out on there! Happy New Year!

December

2011-12-11T10:44:00.003-07:00

I've only blogged twice this month and I probably won't get around to blogging any more. Not because I don't want to, but because we're headed to Grand Junction on Thursday and I very rarely post from my parents house. I have to say, even though I despise the cold, I love December! It just feels so holiday-ish, and since the Christmas season is my favorite, I guess I can put up with the cold for a little bit. However, with cold come germs, and out comes Kari the germaphobe, so we haven't left our house too much. I know that you're thinking "Jonathan had Strep for 2 weeks AT YOUR HOUSE" and you'd be right, so the not leaving the house thing really doesn't mean there aren't, I'm just a freak.
Anyway~ I have thoroughly enjoyed my hot chocolate every morning and my occasional trip to Starbucks for a caramel apple cider. I constantly have on Christmas music no matter where I am. I have also enjoyed getting my girls dressed in cute winter outfits like this:

Going to church

"Little sister"

What you can't tell from this picture is how ridiculously cute her boots are.

Well, I hope you all have a wonderful December, and I'll be posting more in January!

My girls

2011-12-01T10:43:00.006-07:00

I just want to tell you all that I think my life is great. I'm not trying to brag, just let you know that I am happy. I'm grateful for all that we have, and I really enjoy having 2 kids. More than I enjoyed having just one. Of course, having a 2 year old and a newborn doesn't always make for great days, but we're just taking it one day at a time. And most days are great. I especially love it when I come into the living room to find this:

Breast pumping.

Excuse the nakedness. She seriously does not like to have clothes on. Ever. Her favorite thing is to get naked, wrap up in her blanket, and sit in front of the space heater in her room.

Addilyn is 7 weeks old now, which is crazy! Time is flying by. She's going through the dreaded baby acne phase right now, so I haven't been taking too many pictures, but here is one:

I know one of the greatest gifts we all get is thinking that our kid(s) are the best/greatest/cutest. There are days when I don't think mine are the "best", but I definitely love them the VERY MOST!

Wheels on the bus

2011-11-27T12:30:00.001-07:00

For your entertainment:

A story about Strep and Thanksgiving

2011-11-25T20:46:00.003-07:00

Turns out having strep throat doesn't make for the best Thanksgiving. I wouldn't actually know, because it's Jonathan that has it. And if you're wondering why it's not Jonathan writing this post about it, it's because he's still dying on the couch. He has now been totally out-of-commission-sick since last Thursday! Poor guy! And while I feel really bad for him, I'm SO ready for him to be over it because I feel like a single mom of 3 kids right now.

Lets start from the beginning. Last Thursday he came home from work sick with the chills and body aches and a sore throat. Friday and Saturday he struggled through the work day, taking about 4 Advil every 4 hours to keep his fever and sore throat at bay. Sunday he was still feeling really awful and annoyed that his "flu" hadn't gone away. He showed me his tonsils and they were HUGE and had white spots on them, but the light bulb didn't go off over my head until a couple hours later when he said, "Ya know, with my tonsils looking like that I wonder if I have tonsillitis or something." And I was like, "STREP!" because one of my friends from church had just told me she had it. He went to urgent care right away and sure enough: Strep. They gave him a prescription for Amoxicillin and we figured he'd take the next day off work, and within 24 hours he'd not be contagious and be good to go. Wrong. Monday was awful. Tuesday was awful. By Tuesday night when I was pretty sure he was going to die, we decided he should go to the hospital just in case something else was wrong that was making him feel like this. Nothing else was wrong but they gave him a shot of penicillin and a steroid shot and sent him on his not-so-merry way. The next morning he was feeling better but still couldn't really eat anything and was getting lightheaded if he was up too much. Same thing on Thursday, Thanksgiving, which is why it wasn't great. Same thing today, which is why he came home from work an hour early. WHEN IS IT GOING TO END?? My goodness, I haven't seen him sick like this EVER. Not in the 3 1/2 years that we've been married has he called out from work sick, and now it's been a week of days off or going home early. :( Let's just all keep our fingers crossed that he'll be back to 100% soon, or I might die too.

Did I mention he's also lost 15 pounds? :(

Needless to say, this was the ONLY picture we took on Thanksgiving:

I hope you all are staying healthy!

My secret

2011-11-16T15:44:00.004-07:00

I've discovered the secret to happiness. Well, besides my perfect marriage and my perfect kids.

Hahahahahahahahahahahaha.

But seriously, you HAVE to make these. Even if you think it's annoying when people post recipes on their blogs, THIS is the one you have to print and try. It will not let down your expectations. And if you don't want to go through the trouble of rolling them in balls and covering them in chocolate, just take a big scoops and add it to vanilla ice cream for instant cookie dough ice cream! Perfection. Or, you can tell your kids how lucky they are that their mom lets them eat dough straight out of the bowl because hey, egg free!!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Truffles
Yield: 3-4 dozen
Prep Time: 1 hour
Total Time: 2 1/2 hours
Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine, room temperature
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/3 cup milk
1 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips

14 oz dark chocolate candy coating

Directions:
Beat butter and sugars and in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy. Add milk and vanilla. Stir in flour, baking soda and salt and mix on low speed until incorporated. Stir in chocolate chips.

Cover and chill dough for 1 hour.

When dough is firm enough to handle (it may help to lightly flour your hands), form dough into 1" balls and arrange on a baking sheet lined with waxed paper. Place sheets in freezer and let chill for 30 minutes.

Melt chocolate candy coating in a double boiler or in microwave according to package directions. Using forks or a dipping tool, dip cookie balls into candy coating to cover. Tap fork on side of pan to remove any excess coating, and return to waxed paper-lined baking sheets. Chill until set. Store, chilled, in an airtight container for up to 1 week (though good luck making them last that long).

So, the verdict is in.. These are BETTER than cake balls. And my baby weight is not going away. :) Enjoy!

Also, if you're not on Pinterest after last time I told you to, could you PLEASE get on that so I can stop posting this stuff on my blog? Thanks.

Family Pictures

2011-11-16T15:13:00.004-07:00

Can you guys believe how many pictures we get taken? We're narcissistic.

The other day I was telling Jonathan I wasn't sure what we were going to do about a picture for our Christmas cards this year. We could go to JCPenny or Sears, but none of their card deals come with free sitting fees, which are $9.99 per person, so that's already $40 more than I wanted to spend, not including the actual pictures! (I'm cheap.) We could call the lady that did our maternity pictures, but she lives in Springs, so I knew it would take a while to get an appointment for her to drive down here, and it took her about 2 weeks to get our last pictures back, which was too long for me to wait. (I'm impatient.) So, I pretty much did nothing except whine to Jonathan that I didn't know what we were going to do. Then my friend Tara read my mind. Seriously, the next day she wrote me on my facebook as asked if it would be ok for her to take pictures of Addilyn for practice. All of my problems were solved! So, I asked her if we could throw in some family pictures while we were at it. She did such a great job! Unfortunately for you guys, you have to wait to get your Christmas card in the mail to see the whole family together. Here's a preview of the rest:

By the way, how cute are those outfits?! My Aunt Ann sent them to me when Addilyn was born, so this was the perfect opportunity to show them off!

So cute

Kisses from Mom

And Dad

For those that don't know, she has a mole on her shoulder. We thought it was a birthmark, but our pediatrician told us it was just a mole. Anyway, there it is.

Thanks again, Tara!!

Recipes

2011-11-13T17:54:00.003-07:00

Are you on Pinterest? If not, you should be. If you need an invite to be on, let me know and I'll e-mail you one. There is so much fun stuff to look at, but my latest obsession is recipes. I guess it's not my latest, I've always been obsessed with recipes. I think I'm the only person in the world who, in 3 years of marriage, hardly ever repeats a recipe. When I meal plan, I like to just browse through different cookbooks or apps on my phone, find recipes that looks yummy, buy the ingredients and cook them. Sometimes they're great, sometimes they're not so great. Jonathan would probably actually prefer that I just stick to what I know, but what's the fun in that? If I did that, I wouldn't have come across all these delicious looking recipes on Pinterest, 2 of which we have absolutely loved! I thought I'd share them with you. Here you go:

This first one looks long an complicated buy it's really not at all. It's just a lot of ingredients. But these taste just like the ones at Chili's! They're so yummy!

Southwest Egg Rolls
*Makes about 2-3 dozen

INGREDIENTS:
Rolls:
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium yellow or red onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
3 (about 1 1/2 pounds) boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cubed
1 green or red pepper, diced small
1 jalapeno pepper, membranes removed, seeded and finely minced or 4 pickled jalapeno rounds from the jar
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
10 ounces frozen, chopped spinach, defrosted and liquid squeezed out (wringing through a kitchen towel works great)
1 cup frozen corn
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/4 cup freshly chopped cilantro
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
2-3 cups shredded cheese, such as Monterey Jack, Pepper Jack or Cheddar
2-3 dozen small, fajita-size flour tortillas

Chipotle Dipping Sauce:
1 cup sour cream
1/4 cup salsa
1 teaspoon minced chipotle chiles in adobo sauce (if you are opening a new can to only use 1 teaspoon, freeze the remainder in a freezer-safe ziploc bag and pull out and thaw as needed)

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Line two rimmed baking sheets with foil and lightly grease with cooking spray. Set aside.

In a small bowl, combine the dipping sauce ingredients. Mix well and set aside or refrigerate until ready to serve.

In a large 12-inch nonstick skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion and saute for 3-4 minutes until softened. Add the garlic and cook for about 30 seconds, stirring constantly. Add the cubed chicken breasts and peppers and cook over medium or medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until the chicken is cooked through, about 5 minutes. Add the rinsed and drained black beans, spinach, corn, cilantro and seasonings. Mix well and cook until the mixture is heated through. Add the cheese and stir well, cooking, until the mixture is hot and cheese is mostly melted.

Warm the tortillas. I place 5-6 between two damp paper towels and microwave for about 45 seconds. Place some of the filling on each tortilla and roll up tightly, egg-roll style, folding in the edges. Place seam side down on the prepared baking sheets (secure with a toothpick if needed).

Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes, until the rolls are lightly browned and heated through. Serve immediately with dipping sauce.

Here's the second one:

I'm not sure if there is a breakfast that is worse for you, but this is SO delicious! I'm thinking we'll definitely have to have this at my parents house over Christmas!

Cinnamon Roll French Toast Bake
Ingredients
1/4 cup melted butter
2 cans (12.4 oz each) Pillsbury® refrigerated cinnamon rolls with icing
5 eggs
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup chopped pecans
3/4 cup maple syrup

Garnish
Icing from cinnamon rolls
Powdered sugar
Maple syrup, if desired

Directions
Melt butter and pour on ungreased 13×9 inch glass dish. Separate cans of dough into 16 rolls reserving the icing for later use. Cut each roll into 8 pieces and add to buttered baking dish.
Beat eggs in medium bowl. Add cream, cinnamon and vanilla and beat until well blended. Pour over cut pieces of cinnamon roll pieces.

Sprinkle with pecans and drizzle 3/4 cup syrup over the top. Bake at 375 for 20 to 28 minutes or until golden brown. Cool 15 minutes.
Remove the covers from icing and microwave on medium or 50% power for 10 to 15 seconds. (Should be thin enough to drizzle.) Drizzle icing over the top. Sprinkle with powdered sugar. Serve with syrup if desired. Yum!

Now go try them! And if you haven't joined Pinterest, I highly recommend it.

Houdini

2011-11-12T11:25:00.005-07:00

A couple months ago Amelia started taking off her pajamas at nap time and bedtime. She wouldn't really do anything except once or twice she peed the bed, but mostly she would just yell for us until we went in to find her stark naked. One night she didn't yell for me, but I just happened to go into her room about an hour after she fell asleep and she was wrapped up in her blankets so cozy, naked. Well, I was telling Melody about it, and being the sewing genius that she is, she whipped up 2 footed sleepers that zip up the back by the next day. Problem solved, right?

WRONG. That worked wonderfully for a couple weeks, and then the other night she was yelling for us from her bed and when Jonathan went to check on her she was naked! She had gotten completely out of a sleeper that zips up the back! What the heck? Who is this child??

Here is a close up of the neck:

Here's a close up of the back, which apparently had enough of a gap that she was able to squiggle her tiny shoulders out of, slip off over her body and escape!

Now each one has an added button on the top that will HOPEFULLY solve the problem.

Clothes galore

2011-11-09T16:05:00.004-07:00

We have SO many baby girl clothes it stresses me out. That's a lot. The other day I got out the two huge boxes we have of winter clothes that are a combination of Kalena's, Amelia's, Caroline's, and clothes that Kirsta got from friends that were done having kids. As I'm sorting them into different totes that I think (hope) will be an effective way of organization so we get the best use of all of it, I'm wondering why we would possibly need 15 different pairs of (essentially the same) pink pants. I tried to take a picture so you could get a feel for how many clothes are actually here, but there's just really no way to do it justice. Here's a look anyway:

That's footed outfits on the bed, "pre-made" outfits in one tote, long sleeved shirts in one tote, and just pants in the other tote. That doesn't include any dresses or sweaters, which are hung up.

And here's a close up of that adorable sleeping baby in the midst of it all:

I think there's only one solution for all this: See how many days we can go without repeating an outfit or doing her laundry. That should be a fun game.

I can only keep my fingers tightly crossed that Elsha finds out she's having a girl in March, so that I can give it all away!

Camouflage

2011-11-09T16:02:00.002-07:00

Where did Addilyn's legs go!? :)

These are the things that amuse me when I'm sleep deprived.

Pajamas

2011-11-07T10:08:00.004-07:00

The other day I was in Old Navy and up by their registers they had some Halloween costumes on 50% off clearance. I didn't think this would make a great costume, but I knew it would make GREAT pajamas, and that Jonathan would love it!

Mom

2011-11-05T19:03:00.003-06:00

Why is it that you can eat 1000 different lasagnas (or enchiladas, or brownies, or...) in your life but your mom's is always the best?

As you all know, my mom was here last week to spend a whole week with me! I guess I need to start having more babies so she'll have a reason to take a week off work to sit around my house with me. It was so relaxing with her here. She made everything seem so easy with a new baby, even if it meant holding her while she cried so I could finish reading a book with Amelia. She also had great parenting tips for us with Amelia. How come we've been struggling with potty training for weeks but as soon as Grandma is here she goes accident free for 3 days in a row? Hmm. There's only one conclusion.. My mom needs to come live with us. :) I sure had a great time with her and hope I can be as great a mom as she is!

Happy Halloween

2011-11-01T09:05:00.004-06:00

Our Halloween this year was pretty uneventful, mostly because we didn't know when this baby would come, so we didn't know how much we'd feel up to doing. Friday night while Mom and Dad were in town we invited Melody and Tom over for pizza and pumpkin carving. Here are some highlights from that night:

She was pretty grossed out by it all

Me cleaning it out

Jonathan carving it

It's Elmo!!

Last night Jonathan took Amelia trick-or-treating around our neighborhood. She made it to 4 houses and then said she was done, so we went over to a friend's Halloween party for a while and then came home.

Ready to go!

Cutest darn elephant in the world!

I hope you all had a wonderful Halloween!

Sharp sticks

2011-10-26T20:38:00.002-06:00

This one is for the Gustavsons...

Tonight at home, mom, Jonathan, Amelia and I were downstairs watching tv and Amelia was being a little bratty and whiny. Finally, I got my stern voice on and this was our conversation:

Me: Amelia, what do you need? Do you need juice?
Amelia: No
Me: Do you need to go upstairs?
Amelia: No
Me: Do you need a poke in the eye with a sharp stick?
Amelia: Kay
*We all burst out laughing*

PAUSE

Amelia: Sharp stick??

Maybe you had to be there, but hopefully that was just as funny to you guys.

Let's Compare

2011-10-19T20:23:00.006-06:00

The great debate: Who does Addilyn look like? We've gotten different opinions from all over the place, so I thought I'd do a little comparing between her newborn pictures and Amelia's. Shall we?

This is my favorite first picture of Amelia

Jonathan look-alike

One of the first pictures of Addilyn

Relaxed

So, any resemblance between the 2 girls?? Well, check this one out. I was looking through my baby book and came across this picture of me that's on my birth certificate, taken when I was 2 days old.

And here's Addilyn again:

Whatcha think?!

Birth Story

2011-10-14T18:53:00.003-06:00

Let's start on Monday, Oct 10. I had my weekly doctors appt, where she told me that I was already dilated to 4cm, and since I had had steady contractions that had died off the night before, I needed to head to the hospital the next time I had contractions for no more than an hour. She also said, "How about if nothing happens before Wednesday morning at 5:30 we start you on Petocin?" I agreed, without really thinking about what I was agreeing to. Kirsta came down from Denver Tuesday morning and we spent that day trying to bring on labor ourselves by lifting heavy things, using my breast pump, and eating spicy green chili for dinner. After Jonathan got home from work that night we decided together that induction wasn't what we wanted to do, regardless if it meant knowing the baby would be out of me a few hours from then. I called the hospital to tell them I was nixing the induction, and the lady I talked to was the sweetest, most supportive nurse in the world! If I've ever been unsure about a decision, she definitely backed me up 110% and made me feel like the greatest person alive for wanting labor to come naturally. So I went to bed that night feeling wonderful, knowing that it would happen when it happened. And it happened.

I woke up at 2am with a sharp, shooting contraction, and knew that I had just had another one that incorporated into my dream. I got out of bed and after only 3 super painful contractions I knew this was the real deal, so I woke up Jonathan and then went and sat on my exercise ball and started timing. They were coming every 2 minutes and lasting about 45 seconds. Jonathan went downstairs to wake up Kirsta, who happily got up, got dressed and immediately started massaging my back during contractions. We called Melody (my mother-in-law) to come over and stay with the 4 kids at my house while we went to the hospital. I checked into labor and delivery at 3am on the dot, and we made ourselves at home in our labor room, where Kirsta took position as my personal fanner (is that a word?) because I was SOOO hot! I seriously felt like it was 1000 degrees in my room. She was also the worlds best coach, talking me through each and every contraction, telling me to sway my hips, yell ouch as much as I needed to, and never forget to breath. Jonathan set up shop behind me as my masseuse, and trust me, I did NOT let him stop until it was all over. Contractions or not, he was NOT to stop massaging. Lucky for him, it was short. :) My nurse, who is not going down on my list of favorite people, was taking her sweet time with everything, not seeming to give any kind of hoot every time I would yell, "WHERE IS MY EPIDURAL?" She'd casually reply, "Well, first we have to do this. It's coming, don't worry." Or something else not reassuring at all. I kept wondering how much time had gone by, but I refused to look because I knew I'd freak out if it had only been like, 15 minutes. Anyway~ finally my nurse said, "I need you to lay on the bed so I can put this IV in you." As she's casually digging around in both of my wrists I looked at her and said, "I need to push!" She just stared at me blankly. Like an idiot. Then she said, "Well let me take this IV out and when this contraction is through let me check you." She checked me and sure enough, I was at 10 cm!! She told me I was ready and what did I do? I BURST into tears. I was SO SO scared of what was about to come. I said, "So no pain meds?" And she just shook her head. A lot of people aspire to have natural child birth, but I am not one of them. I was scared that my body would tear in half, or that somehow I just wouldn't be able to do it, all the while know that I HAD to do it, pain killer free, and I was SCARED. She ran to grab the doctor, who never made it. A whole rush of nurses and residents came in and through my hysterics I pushed like I physically did not think my body could push, and 3 pushes later Addilyn was out at 4:48am. I regained my composure for a second to realize what just happened. Then I asked for my phone, called my mom and lost it again. I just kept telling her how scared I was, and she kept asking, "Why are you scared? The baby is already out." And I'm like, "I wanted an epidural!! I couldn't do it!! I'm so scared!" I guess it was scary. :) WHEW. Talk about an adrenaline rush for the next few hours. I was just bewildered and couldn't believe what had just happened.

There's no way I can ever thank Kirsta and Jonathan enough for all their help. I truly know that there is NO WAY I could've done it without both of them.

More belly pictures!

2011-10-10T18:32:00.003-06:00

I'm sure by now you are all are sick of seeing pictures of my belly, but lucky for you, this baby is coming tomorrow or Wednesday, and then all you'll see is pictures of her! I got these pictures done yesterday afternoon at my house and it was so fun. A little awkward being so scantily clad in front of the photographer, but it's what I wanted so I had to. :) Then about 10:30 last night I started having painful contractions exactly 5 minutes apart, at about 1 minute per contraction. I was SO excited, thinking, "Here we go!" I timed them for 3 hours, and just about the time I was going to wake up Jonathan and tell him I thought it was the real deal, they died down. SUCH a disappointment. This afternoon I had a doctors appointment and she said it wasn't a lost cause because they progressed me to 4 cm! Yay. After she said that my body is totally ready and that of course natural labor is best, if baby girl doesn't come tonight or tomorrow we're going to start Petocin on Wednesday morning at 5:30. So, whether she likes it or not, she'll be here within 2 days! Yay. Anyway~ back to the real reason for the blog.. Belly pictures! Here are a couple from the shoot yesterday:

The next blog I'll post will (hopefully) have baby girl Addilyn's story along with pictures! Until then...

Never a dull moment

2011-10-07T11:23:00.003-06:00

In our house, I feel like there's never a dull moment. Well, except right now, when my due date is 9 days away and that might as well be a year, because waiting for it to happen is KILLING me. I'm trying to make the most of every day, spending quality time with Amelia, sleeping as much as I can, cleaning a lot, and trying to mentally prepare myself for what's about to come, but that doesn't make days like today any less boring. Anyway~ I snapped a couple cute pictures of Amelia yesterday that I thought I'd share with you, just in case you're at home as bored as I am.

At dinner, she told me she needed to go pee pee so I told her to put down her soda and she did her high pitched, "No no no no no!" and that was a battle I was just not willing to fight, so here she is:

Disclaimer: No, she did NOT get to drink that whole soda. It was Jonathan's and she got the last couple drinks.

After dinner was bath time, and then Jonathan got her dressed in her new pj's from Estes Park:

Hahahahahahaha.

Fingers crossed for a baby soon!

Maternity Pictures

2011-10-01T09:23:00.005-06:00

On Wednesday, Jonathan, Amelia and I got a maternity photo shoot done. It was so much fun! Of course, I think a photo shoot every day would be fun. We drove about 30 minutes to the Fountain Valley Nature Center and met up with our photographer, who's name is Regina. It was so beautiful up there, with lots of water and the leaves changing on some of the trees. Unfortunately, Amelia wasn't so into getting her picture taken that day but we made the best of it and just took lots of pictures without her. :) Regina just sent me a link this morning with a couple of the pictures, and I know she made it a point to send us a couple with Amelia in them, but these might be the only ones we get, haha. Anyway~ here's the few she's sent me so far.

So, this was our outside, flower girl, free-spirit photo shoot. :) On Sunday, Oct 9th, Regina is going to come down to my house for our inside, black backdrop, less clothing, more exposed belly photo shoot. I can't wait for another one!

New best friend

2011-09-14T12:55:00.005-06:00

Amelia has a new best friend! His name is Winnie the Pooh. She wants to do everything with him. Here are a couple of their memories together:

Reading books together.

She loves to push him in this swing. For some reason she sat down with him for this picture but usually she's just pushing him. Gives me some hope that she'll be a great big sister!

While she was swinging him she ran upstairs and came back down with a diaper, handed the diaper and Pooh to Jonathan and said "Put on." Hahahaha. Then a few minutes later she peeked in the diaper and said, "No pee." What a kid!

She also wants Pooh to dump out her potty after she pees in it, but he hasn't learned how to do that yet. :)

Nesting

2011-09-11T18:22:00.002-06:00

Nesting: An uncontrollable urge to clean one's house brought on by a desire to prepare a nest for the new baby, to tie up loose ends of old projects and to organize your world.

I AM NESTING.

I'm guessing it's a combination of pregnancy and watching too much Hoarders on Netflix. It's not that I want to clean necessarily, it's that I REALLY want to organize and get rid of things. For the past week or so I've been going through some things on my own without trying to make too big of a mess, and definitely not getting rid of anything that is Jonathan's without asking (which is hard when he's not here). But I kept pestering him, saying things like, "Are you SURE there's nothing in that closet that you want to get rid of?" So he agreed that we would have a good cleaning day on Sunday (today). And we did. We cleaned out the entire basement, including every drawer, bag, magazine holder, cabinet, box and closet. It's amazing how you can clean out a closet full of misc. stuff once a year or so but there's always more to get rid of. I think, "Why didn't we get rid of this stuff last time we cleaned?" We also did things like built a self in the laundry room to hold all of our paper goods, and we rearranged the baby's room to look better and be more organized. Anyway~ I'm feeling much better, but there's still a little more I want to go through in the next couple weeks before the baby arrives. So, give me ideas: if you could de-junk one thing or place in your house, what would it be??

Fall

2011-09-08T10:22:00.003-06:00

It's feeling like fall is in the air, and frankly, I don't like it. Fall only means that winter is around the corner, and that I never know what to wear. I hate layering my clothes, just because it goes from 60 in the morning to 85 during the day. Also, everyone gets sick because of the temperature drop, and we all know how I feel about sick people and getting sick myself. Even though I'm disgruntled about the weather, I was excited yesterday to dig out the 2 boxes of fall clothes we had stored for Amelia, and when our friends invited us over for dinner last night I thought it was the perfect occasion to get her dressed in some "new" fall clothes. (By "new" I mean that they were Kalena's, but new to us!) Look at what a grown-up she looks like!

I think she looks like a little Linda Gustavson

Then I had her turn sideways so you could see her cute ponytail!

Labor Day weekend

2011-09-05T20:09:00.005-06:00

We had a wonderful weekend! After a long week with Jonathan working Wednesday, his usual day off, he had Saturday off so that we could go to his Aunt Sue's wedding. We spent the day relaxing at home and then got ready for the wedding about 2:30. It was a beautiful wedding here in Pueblo at the Orman Mansion, which is one of the oldest houses in Pueblo, and absolutely stunning. I say that having never seen the inside of it, because of all the changes it's gone through in the past, it is now actually someones home, so we weren't allowed inside. And actually, they don't typically rent it out for events, but the bride and groom happen to know the owners who said they could use it. Anyway~ here we are at the wedding:

Family pic

All she said was "See the water?!" which was pretty obnoxious when we were trying to be quiet during the ceremony. Needless to say, we spent a lot of time by this fountain.

The beautiful bride with her groom behind her

34 weeks!

Amelia and I came home about 7pm to wait for Kirsta, Joe & co. to get here. They arrived about 8, and the cousins got in some good play time. Sunday we relaxed around the house, made some Pueblo sloppers for lunch, and then the Jacob's family went to the State Fair to pick out their new pet bunny. He is so soft and cute!

Welcome to the family, Easter The Bunny!

This morning Jonathan was back to work, so the rest of us just hung around the house until time for Kirsta and Joe to go home. We are always SO happy when they come down to visit us and make our life a little more exciting! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend as well.

Pregnancy update

2011-09-01T09:35:00.002-06:00

I had another doctor visit yesterday. Everything is going just as it should. I only gained 3 more pounds in the last 4 weeks, which is a miracle with the 3 daily bowls of cereal I eat and all the cookies and other junk that is a main staple in my diet. I guess you win some, you lose some (last pregnancy I lost.) I've only gained 21 lbs to date, which is WAY better than last time. I feel like just in this last week or so my belly has really gotten bigger though, so maybe the baby had a growth spurt. She continues to be REALLY active inside me, which is pretty funny to watch when I'm trying to rest my book on my belly and read. Speaking of reading, I'm now on the 3rd book in the Hunger Games Series and I'm loving it! And I've even convinced Jonathan to read it, so he's a good way into the 1st book. Thanks again Mom and Dad for that gift! Anyway~ I'm still amazed every day at how fast this pregnancy has gone. I have another doctor visit in 3 weeks and then every week after that until she pops out! Kirsta has graciously agreed to be my labor helper again this time, which we are so looking forward to! My due date is October 16th, which is a Sunday, and Kirsta will be here from Wednesday to Wednesday, so I'm really going to try to get that ball rolling ASAP when she gets here. I think that's all for now.

Pony Boy

2011-08-18T09:02:00.002-06:00

Amelia just busted out the other night singing pony boy, which was so funny because it's not like we've been teaching it to her or anything. I thought it would make my dad proud :)

Enjoy!

Amelia's Party

2011-08-09T11:40:00.010-06:00

This past weekend we had a very eventful Saturday. We (I don't really know who "We" entails here) decided to have a baby shower for Baby Girl Phelps and Amelia's 2nd birthday party on the same day, AT MY HOUSE. Maybe a good idea, maybe a bad idea, either way, we did it. Unfortunately, I was feeling a little overwhelmed around the time that the baby shower started to I left all the picture taking up to Melody, and she prefers to use film, so you all will have to come to my house to see those pictures. :) Things had calmed down by the time Amelia's party was to start. Jonathan had come home from work, and we were only hosting family, which is less stressful to me than lots of friends. So I DID get lots of pictures of her party. The first one I'll post is of my friend Chrystal and I. Chrystal was actually the one who hosted my baby shower. It was very kind of her to want to do so, considering she lives in Glenwood Springs. Anyway~ even though this picture was taken at the b-day party, it's what we looked like for the shower. :)

And now here are some candids:

She LOVED those balloons, especially when they popped!

Grilling with Dad

Sweet Caroline

Yummy burgers

YUMMY soda

MegaBlocks from Elsha and Brian

Not too sure about this hat!

Where the Wild Things are from Grandma and Grandpa Gus

ADORABLE cake made by Grandma Melody

Yum

Jonathan and my gift to Amelia was this super cute trampoline. She was so eager to jump on it that this picture was taken before the protective walls were set up.

A new tricycle from Grandma and Grandpa Phelps. She doesn't know how to pedal yet but she loves to be pushed around on it.

We also got her this big ball that you hook up to the hose and it squirts water.

After the party we decided to take all the kids over to Mom and Dad's hotel to go swimming. It was a good idea, until EVERY SINGLE time Amelia got water in her mouth she would choke and puke. Awesome. Also, she didn't understand that we weren't in bathtub-deep water so when we wouldn't let go of underneath her armpits she would throw a huge tantrum. It was fun times for us. At least Kirsta had fun with their kids!

Thanks, everyone, for the wonderful gifts and fun times! We are a well blessed family!

Happy Birthday and 29 weeks

2011-08-04T16:25:00.004-06:00

Happy Birthday to my beautiful Miss Amelia! I seriously cannot believe she's 2! But if you ask her, she'll definitely tell you she's 2! Unless she's feeling extra frisky and she'll tell you she's 6 or 10. :) Her favorite songs to sing are wheels on the bus, twinkle twinkle, and head shoulders knees and toes. She's finally to the point with movies that she'll sit for about 25 min by herself so I can get a few things done, but only with Monsters Inc. She hasn't wanted to branch out. She's a great talker, and can tell you everything she needs, which is SO nice! She's even starting to put 3 and 4 words together, like "I need help" or "I can't reach it" or "yes, I do." I don't have any stats on her until next Wednesday, but I'm sure she's fallen off the weight chart. She's our tiny lady. Although, today I asked her what she wanted for her birthday dinner and very seriously she said, "cake." haha.
Here she is doing one of her favorite things:

Coloring!

She scribbles a little and then says "Amelia Phelps" because that's what she thinks she wrote.

On my end of things, I am now 29 weeks along, and feeling great! I had a doctor visit yesterday and she told me I'm doing great! Yay. I've gained 18 lbs so far, so I'm right on track to gain less than 40 lbs this time, unless I get really crazy for the next 10 weeks. (Which I might, because unlike last pregnancy, all I want to eat are sweets.) I passed my glucose test, which is AWESOME! Dr. Kruse said the cutoff is 135 (whatever that means) and I was at 124, which boggles my mind that I failed last time! hmm. Also, I'm all paid off! I've been paying my delivery in increments and I paid the last one yesterday, which is such a relief that there won't be a huge bill a couple months down the road. I was very pleased with how everything went yesterday! Oh, except I shattered the back glass on my iPhone. :( :(
Anyway~ here I am.

That's all for now. It's going to be a busy weekend. Chrystal is coming in town tonight, my parents are coming tomorrow and then we're having a baby shower and a birthday party for Amelia on Saturday! I'm so excited for the festivities!

Pregnancy pillows

2011-08-02T16:41:00.006-06:00

I have no shortage of pregnancy pillows. I don't really know why, because it seems like no matter what you do when you're pregnant, you just don't sleep very well. The first one I bought was right when I found out I was pregnant with Amelia, and I think I was just anxious to buy stuff. It looks like this:

A small wedge. It didn't get too much use.

Later in my pregnancy with Amelia I wanted something more substantial and also that I could put between my knees. We bought a standard body pillow, like so:

Well, now that pillow sits on the back of our couch in the basement because the couch slouches so much you need some head support. Lots of good use out of that one. Then, and couple months ago Jonathan took a random trip to Wal-mart and came home with this one for me:

It was only $8, and since my body pillow was being used for something else, he figured I needed a new one. Well, I LOVE it! It's so comfy and I love that whenever I roll over in the night there's still pillow in the perfect position on the other side. Funny enough, many nights I would wake up to Jonathan sleeping on it with me! Anyway~ the other night when Jonathan got home he said, "Oh I bought you something today! It's a new pregnancy pillow!" He had said that it was a return at his store (Fully inspected to make sure it was gross in any way) and that they were going to donate it but then the other manager asked if one of the guys with a pregnant wife would want it. Jonathan bought it for $9, when they retail for $60! Anyway~ it sat in his car that night and then he set it next to the bed before he left for work, and when I woke up in the morning and saw it I just laughed because I was stuffed in one of those giant comforter bags! I thought, "This pillow is not messing around!" And it's NOT:

I don't know how big it looks to you guys, but it seriously take up more than half our bed. We're going to have to get a king size bed in order to have enough room! :) Just kiddding. But it's SO huge and SO overwhelming that I usually sleep with it until early morning and then throw it off the bed to get some space. And if it's too hot, forget it. It would be great, however, for a winter pregnancy because you'd be warm all night! It's also pretty amusing that I have to get on the bed at the end and the crawl into the space, because it's too heafty for me to just hop on over. So, if anyone needs to borrow a pregnancy pillow, you know who to come to!

Estes Park, 2011

2011-07-25T20:03:00.005-06:00

We just got home from another wonderful Gustavson family reunion in Estes Park, CO. I had never been there before, even though I've lived in Colorado my whole life. It's such a beautiful little town nestled in the mountains. I hope we get to go back someday. Here are some of my favorite pictures:

The cousins

Chewing on a piece of straw

I love Patrick's expression

By the fire roasting smores

Checking out the river

The kids playing with my iPhone

Cutie Eli

This is what happens when I tell her to give me big pretty smiles.. not so sure that was the look I was going for.

We had such a wonderful time, and now that we're home we are SO BORED without people around all the time. Anyway~ I can't wait to scrapbook all these cute pictures!

Bathroom is DONE!

2011-07-13T09:43:00.007-06:00

Our upstairs bathroom is done! Yay! We are so excited that our house projects are getting completed! There are some things that we would do to the house if we planned on living here forever, but since we don't, I think we're almost done with our renovations! Jonathan has put in SO much work, and I am so grateful for everything he does, and how pretty he makes our house. As you remember, this is what the bathroom looked like before:

Doors on the shower, blue linoleum, bulky sink, and small tile around all the walls and in the shower

All of our junk on shelves in the corner got moved downstairs.

On to the new one...

First the fun part.. tearing it all down!

And in the process Jonathan found this behind the mirror. Think it was time for an update?!?

After we painted the walls tan, Jonathan, Justin and I tiled the floor

Back went the toilet and a new, not bulky sink

Then Jonathan tiled the entire shower all by himself!

Back went the fixtures and a beautiful new shower curtain and we are up and running! I am SO SO happy with the way it turned out!

Next we are going to get a roll off and start tearing up our deck and our backyard!

Popcorn

2011-07-11T10:00:00.004-06:00

We have just enjoyed a sort-of surprise visit from Kirsta, Joe and co. It was mostly a surprise to us because it was a surprise to them when Joe's car crapped out on them. So they called and said, "May we please have the eclipse?" And I said, "YES!! Please take it!" And they said, "Ok how about tomorrow?" :) And so we got a visit from them. It's always a good time with them, but usually we're really bad about taking any pictures. This time I was able to snap a few cute ones while we were getting our popcorn ready to watch America's Funniest Home Videos.

Watching it cook

Discussing how yummy it will be

Enjoying their popcorn, laughing at AFV

4th of July

2011-07-05T20:36:00.003-06:00

I hope everyone had a wonderful Independence Day! We had a great day, although I was jealous of everyone that got a long weekend. Around here Jonathan still had to work on Saturday and Monday, so it didn't feel too much like a holiday. Amelia and I started our day with a breakfast at the church which me and 6 other girls sang "America the Beautiful" and "My Country Tis Of Thee" at. Then we headed over to Melody and Tom's house for a yummy lunch of ribs and corn and fruit salad. Let me interrupt myself really quick and say all this food would've been MUCH more enjoyable if this stupid cold that I have hadn't taken away my ability to smell and taste. So I'm just assuming it was all yummy. I digress. After lunch we came home and Amelia and I both slept for 3 hours! It was awesome. When Jonathan got home at 5:30 we headed over to my friend Janette and Jeremy's house for a bbq with lots of friends. A wonderful day!

Not too sure about this day

This is what happens when you tell her to give you big pretty smiles

Also, a month from the 4th Amelia will be 2! WHAT?!?

Milk

2011-06-28T16:58:00.003-06:00

CAN ANYONE TELL ME HOW TO GET MY CHILD TO DRINK MILK?!

It's starting to get a little frustrating. As most of you know, a few months back we threw away her "special" cup because it was old and leaky and getting to be to much of a comfort object rather than just a drinking device. We were so excited to finally get rid of that cup, not realizing what the repercussions would be. She has not touched a drop of milk since that day. Nothing, nada. I feel like I've tried everything. Chocolate milk, strawberry milk, out of a straw cup, out of a big girl cup, drinking mom's milk out of her cup, milkshakes, smoothies, EVERYTHING! I'm lost. Especially because she asks for milk and chocolate milk, and then we get it ready and she won't touch it. I've tried to be nonchalant about it and I've tried being strict and telling her that milk is all she gets for the rest of the day, and believe me, she'll go all day and night without a drop! The other day in a very last attempt I went to the store and bought her old cup! We had a re-introduction and a stern talking to about drinking milk from her old cup and then when we got home she wouldn't touch it. GRRRRRR. Any suggestions are useful!

Potty Training

2011-06-25T20:48:00.003-06:00

I am so happy and proud to announce we have a potty-trained child! By that I mean she is 100% accident free at our house. We still put her in diapers or pull-ups for outings, but I'm hoping to buy her some panties soon and teach her to tell me when we're in public. She now calls her diapers "panties" and will ask you to change them or take them off. Today we had to go to a friends house to help paint and when I told her we had to put a diaper on she started crying!

We first tried to potty train back in April when she was 21 months old, and I thought she was ready because she knew what the potty was, where it was, how to flush, and if mommy or daddy was going pee or poop. Plus, she was peeing out of her diapers so often it was getting really old, so even if she wasn't ready, I WAS! Well, the day I started trying to train her I learned that if she wasn't ready, it wasn't going to happen! Every time she started to pee she couldn't have cared less that it was going all over her and the floor and her toys and everything. Then when I would try and set her on her potty she would scream and cry. So, as discouraging as it was, I decided to wait a couple months and try again.

One day at the beginning of June, Jonathan changed her diaper, took her on a bike ride, and by the time they got home (10 or 15 min later) she has soaked through her diaper all over her pants. He said, "How do you feel about potty training?" So we tried again, and she took right to it!

So far it's been such a good thing! We'll cross our fingers that it keeps going this well.

I'm sure that none of you guys actually care about all this, so I'll just end by saying we are 2 happy parents right now!

Emily's Wedding

2011-06-20T15:00:00.006-06:00

The actual reason we went to Grand Junction was to attend my longtime friend Emily Rhodes wedding. She had asked me last summer, before they had set a date, if I would do her makeup for her wedding, whenever it may be. Of course I was honored! Well, the time finally came for her wedding, but we decided to go to Junction for an entire week to make the trip worthwhile. Anyway~ it was a gorgeous wedding up on Devil's Kitchen with a reception following at Two Rivers Convention Center. She did so many things that made me think, "Dang, I wish I would've thought to do that at my wedding!" For instance, I thought having both her parents walk her down the isle was adorable:

Needless to say, everything was beautiful and wonderful and I'm so happy for her! Here are some more pictures:

Jonathan and I on the bus being shuttled to Devil's kitchen

Beautiful hair, makeup, dress!

Her Dad did the ceremony, which I also thought was adorable.

1st dance

Longtime friends :)

Congratulations to the new Mrs. Emily George!

Anniversary

2011-06-20T14:19:00.004-06:00

A couple weeks ago, June 6th to be exact, was Jonathan and my 3 year anniversary! On one hand I can't believe it's already been 3 years, and on the other I think 3 years feels so short and I feel like I've known Jonathan forever! Anyway~ last weekend before I headed to Junction we went to the Botanic Gardens to take our annual picture in the spot where we got married. Here's the timeline:

2008

2009

2010

2011 (Amelia would NOT put down that cup! Grr)

We're hoping to be able to continue the tradition for many more years. Here are a couple more pictures from the day:

Trying to touch the squirrel

Trying to touch the (real) duck

Smelling the flowers

Jonathan explaining why we don't jump in the water :)

Until next year...

It's a...

2011-05-31T13:27:00.004-06:00

GIRL!!! Yay! Here's the money shot to prove it:

When they gave me this shot of Amelia I thought, "Really? You can't even see anything!" So I was pretty convinced it could still be a boy, until I saw an ultrasound of a boy. Then I knew that nothing in between those legs execpt some little white lines meant a girl. Here are 2 other pictures they took:

A cute little foot

The profile, with her little hand up by her ear. This little stinker would NOT show us her face, until the very end when we saw her open her little mouth, and then go back into hiding.

And here's a picture of me that Jonathan took the other night while I was reading my new cookbook. He walked right up to me and held the camera in my face and I never even noticed! Haha.

Of course my belly doesn't look that big when I'm standing up but you get the idea.

So, now that I have 1000 baby girl names picked out that I love, it's time to start convincing Jonathan that Abigail is too popular, and he needs to move on and listen to some of my ideas! :) :)

Smart Moves

2011-05-29T19:49:00.003-06:00

Every day, Amelia is doing so many more things that make her seem SO smart. For instance, she can count to 10, she can tell you her first and last name, and the names of almost all her cousins, and literally ANY word you say to her she will at least attempt to repeat, most of the time very clearly. I'm loving this stage because she's so easy to communicate with and the tantrums are at a minimum. However, while she IS doing so many things that are so great, she is still a toddler. And she reminds me of this when she does things like eat a pre-filled stamp:

The joys.

Bullets and pictures

2011-05-23T08:03:00.004-06:00

This post is an update of what's going on, and then some pictures if you don't care. :)

*This Wednesday is my birthday. I'm not too thrilled about that. I think over the years I've adopted my mom's excitement about birthdays, which is none at all. I'll be 26, which just means I'm getting older, and that I only have 3 more years until I stick to that age for the next 20 years. :)

*Tuesday the 31st we get to find out what gender our baby is! YAY! I've already been thinking so much about names and how we're going to decorate their room, that everything will just fall into place once we find out. Cross your fingers that it decides to show in between it's legs, or we'll be in a world of confusion.

*The next day I get a filling in my teeth. I'm excited only because it's the tooth that bothers me the most with this pregnancy gingivitis I've got going on. It's on the top in the very back of my mouth, so it's really hard to get to for flossing and brushing, but since it's the tooth I chew with the most it gets the most food stuck in it, therefore causing it to ache ALL the time. Quite frustrating. Hopefully the filling will help some.

*The weekend of June 4-5 we're going to Denver to celebrate our anniversary at the Botanic Gardens. Of course there will be pictures to show you after that.

*On June 15th we're going to Junction for my friend Emily Rhodes wedding. I'll have the honor of doing her makeup, which I'm so excited about! It should be a great time, and of course going to GJ is always fun.

Now pictures:

She was REALLY into this frisbee yesterday at Grandma and Grandpa Phelps house

She doesn't mind sitting on her potty when she's fully clothed! Naked is a different story

Mama's glasses

We just got her lion back from a friend and she was really into it!

I just thought this was cute

Until next time!

Early Birthday

2011-05-15T19:58:00.005-06:00

While we were in Grand Junction and Amelia was being so clingy I thought I was going to pull all my hair out, it seemed like the one thing she would leave my side for was to play in this little house of her cousin Kalena's:

I had told my mom that since she loved it so much that's what we wanted them to buy Amelia for her birthday in August. So, my mom sent me home with some money and instructions to buy it for her now so she was able to play in it all summer. And so we did. And she loves it here just as much as she did in Junction.

She's saying, "Boo!" out the window.

Jonathan even wrote her a letter!

To stick in her mailbox.

Happy early birthday to Amelia! Love, Grandma and Grandpa Gustavson.

17 weeks

2011-05-11T20:54:00.000-06:00

I am now 17 weeks pregnant. Sure seems like more than that. I went to the doctor today for my monthly check-up. She said everything looks and sounds great, except that I'm gaining my weight too fast. She said, "You're going to be mad at me when you get to 40 pounds." I said, "Well I did gain 40 with my 1st pregnancy." And she said, "Not this fast you didn't!" Which is true. I've gained 7 pounds in the last 6 weeks and that's no bueno for this early. I'm going to go ahead and blame that on Easter candy and spending 10 days out of town. :) When we listened to the baby's heartbeat I asked her to tell me if the beats per minute were of a boy or a girl and she said a girl! Yay. But then she said that really means nothing, and it could be either. Dang. But then she told me to look at the Chinese calender to predict gender because it's 65% accurate, so tonight I did that, and it said a girl! Yay. I'm sure soon enough I'll get the public's opnion about how I'm carrying or if I look fat from behind to predict which gender I'm having. Can't wait for that. ;) I would post my 16 week picture for you guys, but it still looks like I'm arching my back a little bit, so I'll spare you for a couple more weeks. For now, check out how cute Amelia is on her new tricycle:

Also, for all you Grand Junctioners, Amelia constantly sits on my lap and says, "pony, pony, pony, whoaaaaaa!"

Home again, home again

2011-05-09T13:30:00.006-06:00

Whew, what a crazy 2 weeks it's been. A couple weeks ago we had gotten a couple e-mails from my Dad saying that my Grandma Gustavson's health was quickly declining. Of course, with all these crazy pregnancy hormones I've got goin' on right now I was a huge emotional mess, so I decided I better go to Junction to have one last hurrah with her and see my family for a little peace of mind. Well, Jonathan had a store manager meeting to go to in Denver 2 weeks ago Wednesday and Thursday, so I thought I'd go with him to spend a couple days at Kirsta's house and then continue on to Junction for said hurrah. Well, I sure got my last hurrah. I arrived in Junction at 2pm on Friday, and at 4pm Grandma Gustavson died. Yep, just like that. Pretty crazy and fast and unexpected, but she's gone. :( I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that she's in heaven being so nice and kind-hearted to everyone, which was something she was often unable to achieve here on Earth. Love you Grandma!

Grandma told me that "Amanda" was her favorite :)

Hawaii 2008

While the loss of Grandma was sad, funerals are always great because they bring people together. It was so much fun to get to spend a few days with all my Aunts and Uncles and their families, and of course seeing Karl was awesome. It was a great trip, and now we're back to normal life.

Easter

2011-04-24T21:05:00.005-06:00

Happy Easter, everyone! I hope you all had a great day! We started our Easter celebrations on Friday night at our friend Kristie and Weston's house, where they had tons of people over with a big egg hunt for the kids, and of course it wouldn't be a party in Pueblo without a pinata! :)

Amelia had a great time collecting the eggs, and she was even more excited when she figured out that there was stuff inside them!

This morning we got dressed in our Easter best for church:

After church we enjoyed a yummy Easter lunch with Melody, Tom, Jeff, Whitney, Justin, Polly and her son Jaxon. After that Amelia got spoiled by 4 different Easter bunnies! Lucky girl.

Swing Set

2011-04-18T18:52:00.003-06:00

Melody and Tom, who don't spoil Amelia AT ALL, just bought her a new swing set!! :) I know where we'll be every day this summer!

Almost done!

Helping dad screw on the slide

So happy!

Wheeeeeeeee

We appreciate SO much everything Melody and Tom do for us, and we DEFINITELY know how much they love Amelia.

1 down, 2 to go

2011-04-15T21:24:00.003-06:00

I'm almost through my 13th week of pregnancy, which means I'm starting my second trimester! I would be really excited about this, except that my first trimester hasn't been bad. Lets reflect:
** For a while no food sounded good unless someone else made it. That led to a lot of fast food and bland cold cereal.
** Aversions include garlic, canned diced tomatoes, and chicken, amongst other small, day-to-day things.
** Cravings include orange juice, apples, blt's. I seriously feel like I could eat a blt every day. YUM!
** My weirdest craving came one night after I had fixed Jonathan dinner and the whole time cooking I thought, "This looks and sounds disgusting." (I don't remember what it was.) I just hung out with him at the dinner table and made pleasant conversation :) Then about 7:00 I said, "Let's order omelets from Ihop!" Best. Omelet. Ever.
** I've been extremely tired, and I feel like that's been the biggest difference from my last pregnancy. Last time I was working full time, so maybe I just didn't think about it as much, but this time I just feel like I could sleep ALL the time! I go to bed about an hour earlier than usual, sleep until Amelia wakes me up (around 8am), and I take a nap every day when she naps. I do feel my energy coming back now, which is a relief.

With my last pregnancy, I couldn't wait to start showing! I was so excited when we went on the cruise at 19 weeks and I had such a tiny little bump, enough for me to notice, and other people to think I was chubby. So this time I was thinking I had a good 20 weeks before I got to bust out the maternity clothes. Wrong. Although it does depend on what I'm wearing and what time of day it is (obviously at night all my food has settled into my belly) I definitely already have a little bump. I haven't had to wear maternity pants yet, but I'm sure it's not too far in the future. I'm just going to try to embrace my belly, instead of being sad about showing too early. Anyway~ here I am:

The cup

2011-04-12T10:30:00.003-06:00

We finally got rid of Amelia's beloved sippy cup! Not for any other reason than the last of the 3 finally got a hole in it so it needed to be thrown away, and I thought it was in our best interest not to replace it, just so all our pictures wouldn't look like this:

7 Months

9 Months

14 Months

17 months

I feel like that cup has been part of our family! For the past couple days since we got rid of it there's been lots of whining for her "juice, juice!" Which was used about 30% for thirst and 70% for comfort. I think today she's finally realized that the green cup is not coming back, and she's been doing better about drinking out of the other kinds that we have around. It's always these smaller things that you don't realize will be obstacles in parenting. I'll consider us lucky that a sippy cup it our biggest problem. :)

Shoes

2011-04-09T09:39:00.004-06:00

I've been buying Amelia new summer shoes. Raise your hand if you're shocked. They're just so tiny and cute and pretty cheap. People always say that shoes stores put their smallest size on display because they look cuter.. Well, just imagine that in baby size! Love it. Anyway~ Jonathan and I stopped by the Ross Dress For Less in Las Vegas and it had quite the selection of shoes that I just couldn't pass up.

Like these:

And these:

Pink Birkenstocks!

And my favorite ones of all I bought at Target. They're going in Amelia's Easter basket in a couple weeks.

I used to think I could be someones personal shopper, but now I KNOW that I could DEFINITELY be someones child's personal shopper. And actually, maybe just someones little girl's personal shopper. :)

Lately

2011-04-07T15:54:00.002-06:00

Let me just explain to everyone why I haven't blogged in a week:

A while back, my friend Salem's mom had said it was the best book she had ever read. So I told my Dad to buy it for my mom for Christmas, and it's made the rounds in my family and just recently made it to my house. I started reading, and I stopped blogging, doing the dishes, playing with Amelia, etc. ;) Ok, it's not that bad, but this book is SO good! I love a book that I can't put down. Of course, my precious reading time every afternoon gets interrupted because I feel that naps are just as precious. Growing a baby is hard work. :) Anyway~ I'll finsih the book tonight and then I'll try and get some real stuff done. For now, here is a video of Amelia dancing with her Uncle Jeff.

Viva Las Vegas

2011-03-30T18:46:00.007-06:00

Jonathan and I just got back from a super fun 2 night stay in Las Vegas, baby free! Jonathan had never been to Vegas, which made it more fun for me. We arrived on Sunday night around 7 pm, met up with our group of friends and decided to have dinner in our hotel:

The Excalibur...

At this resturant. Let me just tell you, don't go there.

I know that the point of the resturant is for the waitstaff to be "Dick's" to the customers, but it's just not that fun. Plus, there was a VERY loud live band playing, which made it impossible to communicate with anyone without SCREAMING. Annoying.

That night we walked around for a while before calling it a night.

The next morning Jonathan and I got up early and went to the breakfast buffet before heading to the Spa for some nice relaxing treatments. He had been complaining that his back was hurting so he got a 50 minute deep tissue massage, while I opted for a facial. Then we went back to our room to shower and get ready for the day. Everything was going great until our group decided it would be a good idea to walk from one end of the strip to the other to, "See the sights." We saw the sights, and they were beautiful, but it pretty much ruined the rest of my trip by taking away my ability to walk.

Needless to say, that night we opted to take a taxi to dinner at the Bellagio, and then I took off my shoes for the long trek back to New York, NY, which is where we saw ZUMANITY. The show was good, except the part where I GOT CALLED UP ON STAGE. That just might be my biggest fear, and it came to life! I guess I should've expected it, considering we sat on the 4th row, and I was on the aisle. Anyway~ I guess I'll never forget that experience!!

The next day we ate breakfast at a cute litttle cafe in New York, NY, then headed out for more sightseeing, much to my crippled legs dismay.

At about 2pm we got a taxi back to the airport and flew home. I can honestly say I wasn't sad to leave. Besides the fact that I was crippled, I missed Amelia SO much, and we were poor. ;)

Viva Las Vegas!!

It's finally done!! (well, almost)

2011-03-24T22:29:00.016-06:00

-Posted by Jonathan

I know all of you know how long Kari and I have been working on the basement bathroom, but I finally got the motivation I needed to move the upstairs sink to the basement, and it came in the form of four missionaries! We had always said that moving the sink would be the "kickoff" to starting the upstairs, so I guess we're starting. Here are some pictures to remind you all just how bad the bathroom area was before, and I will try to show them in a was/now format.

I think things look a lot better, but the mirror situation is still being debated. I was thinking about mounting the full length mirror, you can see it next to the sink, sideways just below the window giving the room a panoramic look, and I am going to build an inset cubby of sorts for hanging towels to the left of the shower, and some shelves above the toilet inspired by Kirsta's work at John and Linda's guest bathroom. I know you've seen it step by step when you have visited but with the sink in and some hardware and towels hanging, I just think it feels so comfortable. Now on to the next one...

Yikes!!!

Round 2

2011-03-11T08:35:00.003-07:00

Jonathan and I couldn't be happier to announce that we're PREGNANT! I found out a couple weeks ago kind of by fluke, but then I promptly ordered this:

We used Amelia to announce it to my parents and both sides of Jonathan's family. It was cute to watch peoples' confused expressions as they read the shirt for the first time without any warning.

Yesterday I had my first ultrasound, and everything is looking great so far. There's nothing more exciting than seeing that tiny fluttering heartbeat inside your little bean. I am 9 weeks along tomorrow, which makes my due date October 16th. It's going to be a long, hot, FAT summer. :)

So be prepared for lots of pregnancy posts.

The big bang theory

2011-03-09T20:30:00.003-07:00

The other night I went over to my friend Kristie's house to get my hair done. It looks AMAZING and I love love love it! So, thank you SO much Kristie, for making me feel 100 times better about myself! (I don't have any pictures of it yet, sorry.)

Anyway~ that's not what this post is about. While I was at her house, I got a text from Jonathan that said, "Sooo, I was looking at Amelia's hair and I decided she needed bangs. Only, I've never cut bangs before." Those were literally his exact words. Mind you, this is from the guy that I've asked more than once if I could take her to the salon and get her hair trimmed and he said no. Also, I was GETTING MY HAIR DONE AS HE'S WRITING THIS! What the heck?!?! I was freaking out a little. It turned out ok, and honestly, you can't really even tell they're there, except that now her hair doesn't hang all over her face, which is nice. Here are a couple pictures, although it's probably more noticeable when her hair is in piggies but I haven't gotten one of that yet.

I'm "Bike" in the saddle again...

2011-03-06T18:40:00.006-07:00

Last year I got a great deal on Craigslist for a child carrier seat for Jonathan's bike so he could take Amelia on rides. We thought she was still a little too young for it last year, and also I don't even think they sell bike helmets that small, but since it's starting to get nice outside Jonathan decided to hook it up! They took a trip to Wal-Mart together to get her a helmet and some (unexpected) sunglasses:

That day, and almost every day since then, they've gone on a bike ride together! It's so cute to hear Amelia run into the garage to greet Jonathan when he gets home from work and yell, "Bak, bak!" (That's "bike, bike" for any of you that didn't catch on.)

Well, as much as it was really great to have them go on a short ride every evening so I could finish making dinner, I was feeling a little left out of the fun. Here was our solution to that problem:

A bike for Kari! Yay! Isn't that the cutest bike you ever did see?! I love it! And the best part about it was our family bike ride tonight :) Hopefully many more to come in the warm Spring evenings.

An apple a day..

2011-03-03T12:42:00.003-07:00

Amelia loves apples, which she calls, "Hap." We usually cut them into slices and cute the skin off, but the other night she just wanted the whole thing. No slices, all skin.

Whew

2011-02-25T12:07:00.002-07:00

My sincere apologies for taking a small blogging break. Right now I'm exausted and not feelin' so hot. Other than that, everything is great! We had the chance to go to Colorado Springs on Wednesday to see my parents. Unfortunately, they were there for my Great Uncle's funeral, so it wasn't the happiest day, but I'll take any opportunity I can get. I can't wait to go there in a couple weeks and have more time with them.

I'm really trying to think of anything else that's new and I'm drawing a blank. I promise there will be more interesting blogs in the near future, just as soon as I catch up on some much needed sleep :)

Sleepy lady

2011-02-15T09:25:00.003-07:00

YOU GUUUUUUUUUUYS! All of my hopes and dreams about Amelia falling asleep outside her bed are coming true!! I'm so happy! I don't know if it's because now she doesn't have her cup and so she can fall asleep in different places then just in her bed with her cup, or if it's because now during the day when she does get her cup it's so comforting to her that she just curls up and goes to sleep with it.. Kind of a, "Whenever I get the chance" mentality. Anyway~ The other night about 7pm, we had just changed her into her pj's and brought her downstairs to hang out for about an hour before bed. I was sitting on the couch watching American Idol and Jonathan set her on the couch next to me with her cup. Before I knew it I could see her little cup bobbing up and down so I texted Jonathan to "Hurry and shhh." He whipped out the camera:

The most miraculous part of the story was that she didn't wake up at all during the transition to her bed! I know you're all thinking that maybe we should put her to bed before 8 If she's falling asleep on me around 7:15, but for now, just let me be ECSTATIC that she fell asleep on me!

Whatcha think?

2011-02-11T13:25:00.005-07:00

I've been told for a while now that I look like Kristen Stewart. I don't love that idea, because I think she's super socially awkward and weird, but now I have a weird fascination with watching any interview that she does and looking at pictures of her. So, I thought I'd get all of your (professional) opinions on the matter.

Here I am on New Years Eve. It's not a great picture, actually I think it's a pretty terrible picture of me, but right after Jonathan took it I said, "That looks so much like Kristen Stewart!"

And of course: Kristen Stewart

The latest and greatest

2011-02-09T19:41:00.002-07:00

Today was Amelia's 18 month doctor visit. Everything is looking great.. And tiny. She FINALLY weighs 20.1 lbs, which is what the average 12 month old weighs. That puts her in the 5th percentile for weight, then she's in the 50th percentile for height, and the 10th for head circumference. If you didn't quite catch that, I said the FIFTH percentile for weight. What I'm trying to say is that her cousin Will needs to rub off a little on her.

In other news, we have taken the beloved sippy cup away at nap time and bedtime. It's been needing to happen for a long time now, but we've been putting it off because we're lazy. :) It actually happened by default, because we lost both her cups! One had been lost for about 5 days, and then one morning I gave the other one to her and by nap time it was no where to be found! So I said, "Today is the day!" and we haven't looked back since (that was 3 days ago.) We were pretty much unwilling to fight the battle, but actually, it hasn't been too bad! Ok, that's kind of a lie. It's really hard to listen to her cry for an hour to get to sleep, but she's slept through the night both nights so far! And as I sit here and write this, it only took her about 5 minutes of crying to go to sleep tonight! Yay. Wish us luck that we're on a smooth path to better sleep for all of us (including when we travel.) :)

Tonight our friend called and invited us to go to a baby gymnastics class with her and her 2 year old daughter. What could be cuter than an 18 month old doing gymnastics?? Nothing! Of course we said yes. Well, it wasn't all rainbows and butterflies, if ya know what I'm sayin'. I think we need about 6 more months for Amelia to fully grasp what's going on. Tonight she pretty much wanted to run around like a crazy lady. But, Jonathan was able to catch this video from the observation room:

Snow play

2011-02-07T18:44:00.006-07:00

To pass some time today I thought we'd go play in the snow. Last winter I bought Amelia some snow bibs for this winter, and now I don't really know why. But because they're there, I always feel kinda guilty that she's never worn them. So today was the day:

I had high hopes that we would be outside for about an hour, stomping around and eating the snow. Well, and hour turned into about 5 minutes when she didn't really want anything to do with the snow, and the 2 times I picked her up and set her in the middle of it, she fell over and cried. Oh well, it was fun for 5 minutes, and now the bibs will be passed on to cousin Caroline.

Excited about the snow..

..Not excited about falling in it. (Don't worry, she didn't get hurt)

Maybe she was actually crying because she needs a smaller hat! Oops. :)

18 Months!

2011-02-03T09:51:00.004-07:00

Amelia will be 18 months old tomorrow! Wow. Time has sure flown by! We went and got her pictures taken yesterday at Sears and I thought I'd show you guys some teaser photos. Sometimes, when your child is having a bad day and you only come out with 1 or 2 good pictures, you're grateful that you're only choosing 1 pose for the $7.99 package. Not the case yesterday! We loved every single picture she took! We did eventually narrow it down to just one, but you'll have to wait to see when it comes in the mail! Here are some other cute ones that we didn't choose:

A sleep story

2011-02-01T11:58:00.003-07:00

I think it's safe to say that most people with kids have or have had some sort of sleep struggle with them. Ours came when Amelia was about 5 months old and her naps and bedtime were still so unpredictable that we decided to make her nap times at 10am and 2pm, and bedtime at 8pm. So every day we did the same routine at the same time, and within a matter of days there was no more struggle, just a peaceful sleeping baby and happy mom. Well, that's all still going fine and dandy, now with just 1 nap a day. Well, now the struggle comes because that "great" plan only works if we're home. Whenever we travel or are out for an extended period of time (like in the car or at church) the sleeping thing is a no-go. I've always been so jealous of people walking around with their kids sleeping on their chest or in the shopping cart or wherever else, and I've LONGED for the day that we could video-tape Amelia falling asleep in her spaghetti at the dinner table.

Well, today I caught a small glimpse of that. Jonathan had said bye-bye to her on his way out the door to work at about 10:40 this morning. I was sitting at the kitchen table eating a snack, and I noticed that Amelia had gotten really quiet. I finished up my food and went into the living room to investigate. Here's what I found:

YES!!!!

Beautiful

2011-01-28T16:10:00.005-07:00

Thank goodness for beautiful weather! There's nothing quite like having this long, freezing winter broken up by a day of 70 degrees! Remember when this was Amelia "enjoying" her first trip to the park:

Well, here she was today.. No more baby Amelia!

And I didn't even touch her once! She did it all on her own! I was pretty proud.

Then we went and fed the geese. We were just going to look at them until a nice girl came over and asked if I wanted a loaf of bread to feed them. I said, "Maybe not a whole loaf, but how about a couple slices?" She was there with her Grandpa who said, "We went to the day-old bread store and they gave us 22 loaves for $2!" WHAT?!? Looks like I'll be visiting the day-old bread store!!

What a beautiful day! By Tuesday it's supposed to be back to 22 degrees. Great. More winter.

At the movies

2011-01-21T19:17:00.003-07:00

I (kind of) want Amelia to watch movies. Not all the time, or even every day, mostly just when we travel. Haha. We have taken the portable DVD player on a couple trips, but she doesn't seem to care too much about it, and mostly just continues to fuss in her car seat. Since we have taken it on some trips though, she now knows what it is, and since it's just sitting out on our basement floor she often brings it to us. We put a movie on and she doesn't even watch for 5 seconds before she closes it up and leaves the room. So, tonight was the same routine.. She brought the player to Jonathan, he turned on the movie and got through allllll the credits (annoying) but THEN, he taught her how to lay on a pillow and watch.

That lasted about 5 whole minutes! Pretty cute.

My big girl

2011-01-18T11:05:00.004-07:00

The other day, when I was on my (almost) daily call to Kirsta, she was laughing at me because I still call Amelia "The Baby." I suppose I call her that because she's my only one. So she is still the youngest in the house. Someday when I have 3, the youngest will be The Baby. :) Anyway~ she's definitely not a baby these days. She's perfecting her early onset of the terrible two's. Fun times. She has also gone from 0-60 on the talking front, and is always walking around saying, "hi, hi, hi" or "bye, bye, bye." She also says "up" CONSTANTLY, and just the other day I figured out it not only means "up", it also means "help" which makes more sense when she's trying to put on her shoes or something, lol. Here are some pictures (because I'm on my computer today) :)

In her new jean jumper made by Grandma Melody

Look how tall she is!

She now rides her turtle like a buckin' bronco! It's hilarious.

Pretty smiles

Reading books

I love shopping! Who's shocked?!

2011-01-12T17:43:00.002-07:00

It's my favorite time of year.. Clearance shopping time! :) I know that Old Navy will often run their clearance on an additional 50% off the already low prices, so I've been patiently waiting. Our Old Navy is conveniently located right next to Bed Bath and Beyond so I can just pop my head in there every once in a while and see what they've got going on. Well, today was my day! I even got to go shopping alone, which was a double bonus! While we already have lots and LOTS of clothes for Amelia because she gets all of Kalena's adorable hand-me-downs, I just can't pass up $2 pants, sweaters, and especially shoes! A couple days ago, while I was sitting at home, patiently waiting, I took out the box of winter clothes for Amelia NEXT winter and inventoried everything so I would make sure not to buy something she already had or didn't need. How organized am I?! :) Anyway- now we are even more definitely set for next winter, and after that I can feel VERY happy about passing everything to Caroline!

New Year

2011-01-10T22:25:00.002-07:00

YOU GUUUUUUUUUUUUYS! This is not a great start to a new year! If blogging were my New Years resolution, I would have totally failed. It's a good thing I don't make resolutions at all, actually, because I feel like they are just a set-up for failure. Actually, about 20 minutes ago I tried to make a list in my notes of things I wanted to accomplish or get better at in 2011. So, I made my list:

Things to do/ goals for 2011:

And there it sat. Empty. I'm just not ready to write things like, "Be more patient with Amelia," because I feel like I am patient with her most of the time, and asking for an 18 month old to not try your patience is like asking pigs to fly, so we'll just take it one day at a time. Then there are smaller things like, "Do my hair and makeup every day and not wear 'stay-at-home-mom' clothes" which would be super fantastic to do, but some things are just unrealistic. :)

I will tell you my ONE goal for 2011: Get pregnant.

Let me tell you a couple other reasons 2011 has started off on the wrong foot. Right after we got home from Junction, we both came down with colds. So we rang in the New Year sneezing up a storm. Also, the iPod I bought Jonathan for Christmas won't hold any music. Awesome. THEN, I lost my freaking wallet. By now, everyone has heard the whole obnoxious story, but I'm still waiting for all my new bank cards to come in the mail so I can get on with my life.

Lastly, let me explain to you people why I don't blog. I don't use our computer. Plain and simple. The only reason you're getting this blog right now is because I learned I can, infact, write blogs from my phone, not just read and comment on other peoples. Unfortunately, no pictures of Miss Amelia will be included, because I'm not too sure if I can upload photos from my phone to my blog. Once I figure that out though, you will surely hear more from me.

Christmas tree adventures

2010-12-05T19:28:00.004-07:00

Much to my dismay, we didn't get a Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving.. Or for that matter, the day after Halloween. :) jk. Anyway~ we were going to get ours on Thursday night, but we were feeling lazy so Jonathan said, "let's just get it on Sunday." And lucky we waited, because on Friday Melody called and said she works with a lady who lives in San Isabel forest (about 30 min outside Pueblo) that has an overabundance of trees that she needed to get rid of. So today, Jonathan, Amelia and I, and Melody and Tom bundled up and loaded up in the car for a short trip to the forest. We had a great time, got a tree for free, and made better memories doing it than going to Home Depot. Yay.

Amelia yawning from the beginning, turned into a few tantrums later, and a snooze on the way home.

Grandma and Amelia

Can you spot Jonathan in the midst of all those trees??

Melody having a wonderful day.. until she fell down the hill a little bit :(

Checking out a hole in the frozen creek. The water running underneath was so beautiful.

"Brrrrrr."

Our beautiful tree!

Funny how the tree looked so big in the forest, but pretty tiny in our living room. :)

There's just nothing quite like cutting down your own Christmas tree! What a wonderful day! Happy holidays everyone!

All bundled up for... Winter??

2010-12-02T13:24:00.004-07:00

Yesterday Jonathan got ambitious and decided to put up the Christmas lights on our house. Let me just say that I LOVE having a motivated, handy husband. Anyway~ He put some up in the morning, then came inside and ate lunch and hung out for a little while, then went back out to hang some more. Amelia kept going over to the front door, wanting to watch him so I figured there would be no harm in letting her go outside to help. So, we went in her room and got all bundled in a coat and hat, gloves and boots. She pretty much looked like the kid from A Christmas Story. Hilarious. After she was all geared up to go, we opened the front door to realize it was almost 60 degrees out! What kind of winter is this?! Don't get me wrong, I hate the cold and I'm glad it's not cold, but I know what's going to happen is that it'll be nice until the week I'm trying to travel to Grand Junction. Then there will be a blizzard and all the roads will be closed. Anyway~ She looked cute:

Thanksgiving

2010-11-27T12:55:00.005-07:00

In our neck of the woods, Thanksgiving was relaxing and wonderful. We were not part of the traveling crowd, as we stayed in town and spent the day at Tom and Melody's house. It was low-key, fun, and stress-free. I had big plans of going shopping on black Friday, not for anything in particular, just to get out and be part of the crowd. I ended up spending my day in bed with a stomach bug, while Melody took the baby for me. Thanks again, Melody, for everything!!

Amelia's checking out her outfit

Of course she wouldn't look up for the picture

Sharing cool-whip with Dad

Then Dad got "creamed" by uncle Jeff

Oh my gosh, she looked up!

We're having a stern talking-to about looking good in pictures...

...And this was the best we got.

Happy Thanksgiving, and on to Christmas! YAY

Stuck

2010-11-11T12:20:00.003-07:00

Let me begin by saying that I hate baby proofing. I find it very annoying whenever I want to get into a cupboard or drawer that I have to push down on that stupid locky-thingy (very technical) to get into it. Therefore, we have done the most minimal amount of baby proofing around our house. Don't worry, we have all the chemicals and other harmful things safely locked away, but pretty much everything else is fair game for Amelia to get into. We have been closing the door to the bathroom for quite some time now, finding that to be the easier option. Finally, the other day we decided it would be necessary to baby proof the bathroom because Amelia now knows how to open lids and squirt stuff in her mouth, like diaper rash cream and toothpaste, and enough is enough. Now that the bathroom is all squared away, we can leave the door open! YAY!

So, today I'm sitting on the couch in the living room and Amelia is wandering around the house as usual. I hear her messing with some stuff in the bathroom for a few minutes, then she lets out a few whimpers and then very clearly (for the first time) says, "stuck." I go to the bathroom to find this:

Great.

Happy Halloween!

2010-10-29T20:40:00.003-06:00

We celebrated our Halloween tonight. Even though it's a couple days early, tonight was our church get-together. It was just a gathering in the gym, with a few activities for kids to do. Unfortunately, Amelia isn't old enough to appreciate crafts or really trick-or-treating yet, so our time there was short-lived, but we really enjoyed dressing up! In my opinion, Ameila was the most adorable kid there. :) You be the judge:

Trick-or-treat!

Yummy sucker

I hope everyone had a wonderful Halloween!

October

2010-10-24T19:42:00.007-06:00

Wow, I can't believe it's already the end of October! Life has been busy, as usual. Eric, Amy and Espen were here this weekend and we had lots of fun together! Friday night we had a family get-together at Melody and Tom's house with about 25 of Jonathan's family members. Saturday we met the boys for lunch and then took a walk around the River Walk, and that night we just hung out at home. Thanks for coming guys! We love having visitors!

Here's Espen wearing my shoes :)

I'll sum up the rest of the month in pictures.

Justin came home!! He's been overseas working construction in the Afghanistan/Kabul/Dubai area since January. We were all so excited for him to be home, safe and sound.

We took 2 trips to the pumpkin patch, which was fun, but will be MUCH more fun when Amelia cares, and can walk around that crazy terrain on her own. :)

My friend Stevie and I have been making baby girl tutus and headbands to sell for a little bit of extra money here and there.. Or maybe just for our own kids :)
Cute bow huh?!?

And here's my favorite..

Recently Amelia has really taken to loving chairs. She likes to climb into them and sit proud like a big lady. So, Jonathan and I thought it would be the cutest thing to buy her a chair..

And it was..

It's a little brown leather chair to match the rest of our living room furniture. Love it!

I hope everyone has had a great October so far! Can't wait to post Halloween pictures, and see everyone else's!

California

2010-10-05T09:49:00.009-06:00

We just got home from a wonderful trip to California. On Friday morning we got up bright and early, (poor Jonathan woke up at 2:30am and couldn't go back to sleep), loaded up the car and headed for DIA. Our plane left at 9:30am and was a success:

We spent that whole day and night with my Mom's side of the family:

Grandma telling Amelia she doesn't need to cry every time the dog comes around

Grandma and Amelia

That night we went to Holly and Ryan's to play some guitar hero

Saturday we got ready and went to San Marcos for the rehearsal dinner. First we got more pictures with the fam:
Grandma, Me, Amelia

Add in Jonathan

Take out Jonathan and add Carolyn

Here are some cute shots at the rehearsal dinner:

Passing out gifts

All the bridesmaids got matching Coach clutches. They're so cute!

The ribbon made a great hair bow!

I love my Maria

The next day was the wedding, which was wonderful.

Maria with her Dad

9 bridesmaids!

The whole wedding (Jonathan stood in the back with Amelia so he got lots of great pictures!)

Our family

And then she broke my necklace :(

But she loved the flowers

And my Coach clutch

And me!

The whole wedding party

YAY! Maria Chiovare is now Maria Ayala!! :)

Monday morning we were able to stop by Bryan and Erin's house and chat for about an hour, then we met Carolyn and Shirley for an In-N-Out lunch, and then headed to the airport to go home. After the worst flight home ever, and Amelia getting a minor motion sickness barfing episode, we are home safe and sound, and it feels great!

Houston, we have a walker!

2010-09-20T12:41:00.003-06:00

Amelia is walking! Yay! She still does the "Frankenstein" walk right now, but she's getting better every day. Now, when she falls down, she gets right back up to walking, instead of crawling the rest of the way. Pretty exciting new steps in her life (pun intended).
She also knows how to go down the stairs, which is nice because no more baby gate! The other night while I was doing the dishes and Jonathan was busy, she went downstairs, got her favorite stick of chapstick, and came right back up! How funny.

We've also been working on her signs. It's pretty cute that all day every day she signs bath time, because she SO loves her baths. Even though she only gets one every other day, she'll sign it while we're driving and stuff. Haha. Maybe when it gets colder we'll take more.

Remember when she had tons of hair, and as she got older everything started to fall out except the middle mowhawk?? Well, we finally put it in a ponytail, and look how long it is!

If those videos don't work, could someone please tell me how to upload videos so they do work?! Thanks :)

The Many Adventures Of Patrick Jacobs

2010-09-07T13:16:00.006-06:00

As I mentioned in my last blog, Kirsta and Joe came down to stay with us this past weekend for Labor Day. Unfortunately, Jonathan doesn't get Labor Day off work so we had to cram all the fun into one day. First, we went to the Colorado State Fair and checked out lots of animals:

Goats

Sheep

Bunnies

And cows

After that we came home and ate dinner, then headed out to City Park, which has rides going every night during the summer from 5-9 pm for only 50 cents! Sadly, we discovered these rides about a week after Kirsta and Joe had left last time, so I was DYING for Patrick to come back before they were closed. There's a train and a carousal that adults can ride with the kids, but all the other rides are kids only and they have to be at least 2 years old, which excludes Amelia from doing anything fun. So, Patrick was my go-to guy!

On the train

Ferris Wheel

These little cars just went around and around

More car rides

The carousal

I went on the roller coaster with him, and afterwards he said, "That was NOT a fun ride!" Lol.

As always, we had a great time with the Jacobs!

Messes

2010-09-04T14:08:00.005-06:00

As Amelia gets older, she is figuring out how to get into stuff. I mean, REALLY get into stuff. We used to be OK if things were in their boxes, but now she knows how to open the box and get into whatever is in there. I thought I would share a few examples:

She has a yeast infection right now, so the Doctor told us to get women's Monistat cream and use it on her like diaper rash cream. Well, women's yeast infection treatment kits come with injection tubes, which we of course are not using on her, but they still came in the box.. She found them:

The only thing in the kitchen that we put baby locks on were the cupboards under the sink because there are some chemicals under there. I didn't want locks on the rest of them because when I am cooking dinner she likes to be in there with me but I'd rather have her playing with stuff than whining at me to pick her up. Well, until now. She learned how to get into boxes of food, such as:

Cornstarch!

Today she found the bag of straws:

We bought her a set of fridge magnets so she could have something to entertain herself, and she absolutely loves to "rake" them all on to the floor, which then just leaves me with another mess. So, what's the verdict? Do I baby proof and listen to the whining, or just keep myself busy picking up a lot of messes??

Wonderful weekend

2010-08-30T11:39:00.002-06:00

We had a GREAT weekend around here. Eric called last week and said he needed to take a class here in Pueblo so he was going to come stay a night with us. In the 2 1/2 years we've lived here he had never seen our house! He got here Friday afternoon and then had class that night and again on Saturday morning. Amelia and I met up with him (he?) and Jonathan for the Saturday Taco Bell lunch ritual. After that I got in touch with Chrystal (from Grand Junction) who was in town for the Colorado State Fair. We met up at 1:30 to walk around the Fair, which was a really bad idea becuase it was 95 degrees out and lugging a baby around in that kind of heat is not my idea of fun. But, she invited me back that night to go to the Blake Shelton concert with her family because they happened to have an extra ticket. I got to go back that night babyless, in the cool night air. Wonderful. The next morning we met up with her family for a Cracker Barrell breakfast, went to church, and then got our house ready to have a BBQ for the Bed Bath and Beyond management. That lasted from about 4-8:30 on Sunday night and the weekend was over! Whew. This week I have something planned with friends every day, including Kirsta and Joe coming to stay for Labor Day weekend on Friday! The fun just never stops around here... Until it gets cold again and I become a shut-in. :)

August

2010-08-23T10:03:00.005-06:00

First, my apologizes for not blogging in so long. It's not that I forget, and actually my guilt for not blogging grows with each passing day. It just seems to me that 99% of my readers are at any activity worth blogging about, and then I just feel like I'm being redundant. I think what I need to do is start writing about the "small" things in life, and trying to capture more day-to-day things on camera.

Anyway~ the month of August has had it's ups and downs around here. On the 4th Amelia turned 1!! I of course knew that it was coming, but on that day I finally realized that I am the Mom of a 1 year old! Seriously, where did the time go?? I feel like it was yesterday when my mom was here visiting and she told me to just make it through the first 6 weeks and then it would get better. Well, 6 weeks have passed, and then another 46 weeks! Wow. We had a BBQ at our house for our Pueblo/Springs friends and family on her birthday, and then that weekend we went to Denver for a celebration with the Gustavson side (and Joe's Mom) at Water World and Kirsta's house.

This is the cake I made her This is the new swimsuit we bought her for Water World That was a great week/weekend. The following Wednesday was her 1 year Dr. appointment. She woke up that morning with a fever, so we found it pretty handy that we were on our way to the Dr. When we got there they checked her all out and couldn't find anything wrong, assumed it was just teething and we decided to give her her shots. I wouldn't say that giving her shots that day was a mistake, but the teething combined with a stomach bug (which we found out later that night, which is what was causing the fever), combined with the shots, whose effects didn't show up for 7-10 days, has made this a LONG week and a half for us. There's been high fevers, low fevers, never-ending fevers, throwing up, crying (on both our parts after the throw up:) ), LOTS of whining and therefore lots of Tylenol, skin rashes and the worst diaper rash I've seen, and many sleepless nights. I guess these are the joys of parenthood.

Today seems to be the start of things looking up. The fever is gone and she seems to be getting back to her normal, happy self. Please cross your fingers for me that she stays this way, at least until her next tooth. :)

On a happier note, Amelia LOVES fruit. Such as:
Watermelon And peaches, fresh off our tree! She also signed "all done" for about a week and now she just wants to say it. Any time of the day you say it to her, this is what she does: Mostly it just sounds like "Aaaaaaa daaaa."

I guess that's all for today. :)

My favorite Bear Lake memories

2010-07-26T14:49:00.007-06:00

Since everyone was there, and I believe we all have the same pictures, I'm just going to post a few of my favorites.

Amelia eating cookies

Ba and Na-Na
Food for the birds!
A walk along the beach
Sam, Haley and Jonathan catching some air
By far the most funny play I have Ever seen! I wish they would've had it on DVD.
World's largest pizza
What a doll

This one makes me laugh because it looks like she is thinking, "HOT!"

Family photo

I love this picture of Mom
Aw, Gee.
What a wonderful vacation! If I could wake up every morning to that view, it would be a wonderful world. Can't wait until next year!

The bathroom so far...

2010-07-12T14:11:00.007-06:00

I know you are all DYING to see pictures of how the bathroom is coming along. :) Although we are trucking right along, we laugh at ourselves for thinking this was going to be a weekend project. We are SOOO grateful that Joe was able to come help Jonathan with the hard stuff, like re-wiring the lights and building new walls, and it has been really fun for me to be able to get in there and help with the not-to-hard stuff like painting. This past weekend Jonathan's Aunt Rhonda volunteered to come help us lay the tile, so things are starting to really fall into place and look amazing. I will start the pictures in order from the VERY beginning of the bathroom, even though I think most of you have seen the bathroom in person. Just a refresher.

This is standing outside the door to the whole room. The chunk that's missing out of the wall was from when Jonathan moved our couches downstairs. Oops.

How the washer and dryer were placed

Standing at the washer/dryer looking at the bathroom door

How the toilet looked

The old floor

Starting over..

After lots of demo, Joe lays concrete for the new shower base.

Floor is gone, toilet is gone, lots of tools.

Joe built 2 new small walls to install bi-fold doors, (as seen on the middle right) and they installed "green-board" drywall, which is mold resistant, for the ceiling, along with new can lights and a fan.

After lots and lots of drywall patches and mudding, there was a small hang-up when we realized that you have to texture new drywall. We cleared the place out, Jonathan textured and we painted!

This is the new room for the washer and dryer, which will be closed off by bi-fold doors.

On to tiling..

Laying it down.. these were about the only full tiles that were laid. The rest had be cut.. poor Rhonda having to measure and cut them all! I got the easy job of laying them down :)

All done setting the tiles

Grouting

Here I am, grouting away

The tile as it looks right this very minute.. I'm going to clean it off a few more times and then we're going to seal it.

There it is folks! I hope you can even understand what is going on in these pictures. Definitely more to come. I'll even do a fun Before and After blog of all the different key elements. Ta ta for now!

4th of July

2010-07-05T19:10:00.004-06:00

I hope everyone had a great 4th of July! I know we did! We (Jonathan, Melody and Tom) worked some more on the bathroom remodel, (pictures soon to come) and then we went to Jonathan's Aunt Sue's house for a barbecue. Not to forget, of course, the reason for the holiday, and remembering all of our service men and women, but especially Karl.

I laid Amelia down in the grass, expecting her to roll right over and hop right up. She stayed there for about 15 minutes!

Playing with Grandpa!

Year #2

2010-06-05T18:38:00.004-06:00

Tomorrow is our 2 year anniversary! Time sure flies when you're having fun! Jonathan took the weekend off so we could relax together, and today we drove to Denver for our annual tradition of going to the botanic gardens. We got a new Dyson vacuum for our gift to ourselves, then we had a wonderful lunch at Red Robin, which we don't have the pleasure of having in Pueblo. We then spent the afternoon walking around the gardens reminiscing about our wedding. What a wonderful life.

Here's a look back:
2008

2009

2010

Here are some more cute shots from today:

Happy Baby Lady

Daddy explaining the flowers and the trees

Beautiful flowers

Ouchies

2010-06-02T13:49:00.005-06:00

There's a first time for everything, and with kids, firsts are happening all the time. This post isn't about a first that we're proud of, or one that we're even happy about. It's about Amelia's first owie. We went to a Memorial Day BBQ at my friend Stevie's house and she had set up a little kiddie pool. Amelia wasn't too fond of it because it was cold, but she liked to walk around the edge of it so only her feet were wet. Well, her foot slipped out from under her and she did a nose-dive onto the cement. :( It was sad. She only cried for about 30 seconds though, until I got her the sippy cup and then she was good. Here's the aftermath:

It was very sad when it happened, but now she just looks like the trashy kid when we go out because she's all banged up.. Ahh, kids. :)

The Royal Gorge

2010-05-31T11:52:00.006-06:00

As all of you know, Mom and Dad were here for the weekend! We had such a good time! Saturday Mom and I hung out and shopped while Jonathan and Dad went golfing. Sunday we went to church and on the way home Dad asked if we had ever been to the Royal Gorge. Don't make fun, but I didn't even know what it was! Jonathan had been there once in about '93, not recent enough to remember, so we decided to check it out. We got on their website while at home, and when we saw that it was $25 per person we thought, "Just to walk across a bridge?" We decided it was something you probably only do once in your life so we would bite the bullet on the cost. It is only about an hour away from our house so we loaded the car with only a couple waters to drink and headed out. Well, 7 hours later we were on our way home from a wonderful adventure!! Turns out they've made it into quite the attraction, with shops, food, "rides" and a short movie!

Mom and Dad by the bridge

Looking up at the bridge from the bottom

The sky trolley that Mom and Dad rode but I was too scared.. Can you believe Mom rode it?!

Mom and I each took a turn taking Amelia on the carousel

Jonathan and I at the bridge

What a great day!! Thanks, Mom and Dad!

Cowgirl up!

2010-05-29T11:00:00.003-06:00

This shoe obsession I have for Amelia really must stop. Yesterday I went on a personal mission to buy her some jean shorts, because the only shorts we have are the little cotten ones and they're almost all pink. I had dressed her in a white wifebeater-looking tank and I thought it would be cutest with jean shorts, and when you're a bored stay-at-home mom, those kinds of thoughts are just the thing to get your out of the house! Well, after no success at Target we headed to Old Navy who is almost sure to have what I need. We found the jean shorts, thrilled when we got to the reigster that they were only $1.99! The shoes weren't on sale, but who can resist these..

Dada definitely couldn't resist!

Alive at 25!

2010-05-26T08:06:00.003-06:00

It's official, I'm 25 years old! WOW. I can't believe I made it. ;) I REALLY can't believe that Mom's baby is 25! Where did the time go?! I guess that officially makes Eric OLD. JK, Eric. :) Yesterday was a normal day around here because Jonathan had to work, so I just relaxed at home with Amelia. Then when he got off we went to dinner at Olive Garden, which was delicious. We got home just in time to watch the Season finale of Biggest Loser and Dancing With The Stars, my 2 favorite shows ever. *Note* I was REALLY upset that Evan didn't win DWTS :( Anyway~ then I opened my gift:

It's a new Cricut Cutter!! I'm super excited! And it was a super surprise, considering I don't really know anything about these, but I'm excited to learn!Whenever Kirsta and Elsha are here we can get crazy with our scrapbooks!

As most of you know, I am not a fan of getting older. Turning 25 makes me feel like an old lady. I think I might start wearing anti-wrinkle cream, just as a precaution. I do feel very blessed though, to be (only) 25 and own a beautiful home, with my wonderful husband, and our adorable Miss Amelia. I wouldn't change a thing.

Recently

2010-05-23T20:50:00.003-06:00

I feel like I haven't blogged in forever! No, we didn't fall off the face of the Earth. We've just been keeping ourselves too busy! Jonathan is outside in the yard from the time he gets home from work until it's darker than dark outside, with a short break to eat my (sometimes) yummy dinners. Amelia and I have been enjoying the 80 and 90 degree weather by getting out of the house and buying lots of new clothes and shoes. :) That's not all we do, but it's usually the highlight. She is just growing up right before our eyes! One, or both of my sisters told me once that every stage a child goes through is SO much better than the last. You think it can't get any better and then they start doing more and saying more and it IS better! You never think, "I wish she would go back to being a blob on the floor and doing nothing." Maybe that will all change when they start to talk back. :-/

This is a big week for me.. I'm turning 25! AHHHHHHHHHH. On the 25th no less, which makes it my Golden Birthday! Not that that makes it any more exciting for me. I'm not a fan of birthdays. Jonathan couldn't stand waiting until Tuesday for all my gifts so he let me open one this morning, which was a new outfit complete with matching shoes! Wow, this guy sure loves me! He is such a great shopper. We spent today in Colorado Springs with the Phelps family and ate chicken fettuccine Alfredo and banana cream pie. MMM, my favorite. Here are some pictures from today:

Just SO excited for these gifts!

OOOOOO, nice shirt!

Grandpa Phelps

Amelia likes to nod "yes" and this was right in the middle of a nod, lol. Also, those are Whitney's crazy skinny legs.

Today was a great day, but Jonathan tells me that the best gifts are yet to come, so I can't wait for Tuesday. Then, the highlight of my birthday week will be this weekend when my parents will be here! YAY! I look forward to a busy, fun, exciting week this week, which means that YOU all can look forward to more blogging!

9 Months

2010-05-05T18:49:00.005-06:00

Amelia is 9 months old! What?! Crazy. What's even crazier is that this is how long I was pregnant. Maybe even longer. Ugh. I just couldn't believe how long pregnancy was, and I know it's just because it was my first one and I didn't have anything to distract me. Anyway~ we got her pictures taken at Sears today and it pretty much went like this:

Ok, so it wasn't really like that, but she has taken the Kalena approach to pictures and that is to blankly stare at the photographer no matter what tricks she's trying to get her to smile. I just know she's thinking, "Yea right lady, like that dumb singing frog is going to make me smile." Even though she smiles at us ALL day long at home. We did manage to get a couple cute ones that you all will be receiving in the mail soon. That is, sometime after the 18th when we get to pick them up. Here's a preview to wet your appetite:

No more sneaky peaks! You have to wait and see what you get! :) She is so fun now. She crawls everywhere, which is nice because if she wants you, she'll come find you! She loves to stand up with the dishwasher door and slide the basket in and out. She says Mama and Dada, which we love, unless she's crying saying, "maaaaaaaama." Then it just breaks my heart even more. I think that about sums it up. :)