fun in the sun

I really didn't want to start this blog saying, "we went to Goblin Valley". I'm not sure why, but I feel like that is obvious from the pictures so I don't want to say it, but...

we went to Goblin Valley.

we had some fun in the sun. also the cray wind that would whip through there. Saturday night was spent laying awake hoping our tent trailer wouldn't knock blow over and hoping Smith would sleep through it. the tent trailer didn't blow over, and smith kind of slept through it. It was a rough weekend as far as nights go, but other than that, we had a lot of fun.

I love the desert and the desert heat, however, packing a baby in the desert heat is not that much fun. Smith and I were both sweating like crazy when I would have to pack him around. Craig and I would switch off, but being the paranoid mother that I am, I mostly carried him because I kept thinking, "Craig is going to drop him", even though I knew he wouldn't...maybe.

We did some hiking and we even went on a night hike. Not recommended from me, especially if there's no real trail for you to be on. I was following my dad and he would stop and say, "uh oh, we're supposed to be over there...I think". Anxiety levels were through the roof for me. My brother and Cody could've cared less because they were looking for scorpions (in case you didn't know, scorpions glow under a black light so you can easily find them at night. here is proof).

We wish we could go back already. Sometimes I wish I could just run away to the desert and never come back, but something about that also scares me a bit. Maybe someday, I will just move to Arizona and that will be good enough.

Here is a photo overload.

 ^ someone didn't like his shark hat. Too bad, little man. No one wants a burnt head.

 ^ Desert sunsets are amazing. I wish I could watch one every night for the rest of my life.

 ^ this. this is my husband.

Lately

>>working on our backyard patio. We dug out the area and laid the gravel and now it just sits. We still need to clean up the dirt from digging out the area, but both Craig and I have been too lazy to care at this point. Besides, the dogs are enjoying having an endless dirt pile that they can dig in without Craig and I getting upset. Maybe we will just keep those damn dirt piles.

>>not being able to buy the pavers for our said patio because our truck broke and it wiped us clean in the financial department. We always save our pennies for fun projects, but then life likes to hit us square in the face and say, "give me all your money!". Why life? WHY?!

>>finally fixing our said truck and having it work like a champ. We were bad car owners and swept the issues it was having under the rug and now I'm wondering why we did that...oh yeah, we wanted a freaking patio.

>>Smith hating his carseat a little more everyday and how I'm dreading going to Goblin Valley this weekend with him. 3.5 hours with a baby who hates his carseat + driving through  Spanish Fork Canyon with a trailer = bring me all the drugs to calm these nerves.

>>watching Desperate Housewives every night when I get home. So predictable and such bad acting, but, oh, how I love it.

>>wasting my time inside watching Desperate Housewives instead of enjoying the amazing weather we've been having. I really should take the dogs to the park, but why waste the time when they have a backyard they can run in? I'm lazy I tell you! Down right lazy. I spend the last 6+ months complaining that we can't go outside because it's too cold and how badly I just want to be outside at the park, with my dogs, and my baby and now that I can do it, I don't. I will regret this when it's 100 degrees outside.

>>I'm terribly excited for all the snow cone stands to open. I see they are being set up, but they're not open yet. Why must they tease me like this? Just gimme the snow cones!

>>attempting to stop drinking soda several times in the last 2 months and failing. My job sometimes gives me lousy headaches so I need caffeine to calm my head. Then, Costco has a sale on their giant-ass packs of soda and I buy 3. I can't waste them, so I must drink them. All.of.them.

>>going to dinner with an old friend. this can either be awkward, or it can be wonderful. Dinner with her was the ladder. I love being able to just sit and talk with someone, they accept you and all your awkwardness that makes you, you, and you can just laugh like you see each other all the time, but the fact is, you haven't seen this person is years. You talk, but you don't see them, you know? I loved it. It was grand and Smith quite enjoyed her company.

>>friends had babies recently and other friends announced their pregnancies with their 2nd or 3rd kid. For some reason, this really bums me out. I get jealous of my friends that just had their babies because that moment when you and your loved one become parents ad you're trying to figure it all out, it's astounding. I miss it, but I don't because I seriously do not like newborns. Give me a baby at two months old and I'll take it. I also get bummed out when someone announces their pregnant, again. I feel like I'm behind in the baby making process and I also loved being pregnant. I miss it, but I think I can wait for it to happen again, if it happens again.

>>this kind of milk coma is the best kind.

7 months

On Saturday, March 22, Smith turned 7 months old. We celebrated by taking an impromptu photo-shoot. Here are the pictures that we took:

This session took place in our basement with a some poster/mat board and a wood grain banner that i had custom made through Banner Buzz. You can buy banners similar to the wood grain one on Etsy, but they can get expensive. I was able to have this one done for about $25 and it has been worth every penny.

Obviously my photography need some improvement, but I feel I'm getting better every time I pick up my camera. Practice makes perfect, right?

Also, I want to say how hard it was to find that white button-up-collared shirt. We have searched nearly every baby store in Utah County for one of those damn shirts and we came up empty handed. You would think with Easter being right around the corner that there would be dress shirts for boys everywhere, but no. You can find a million dresses for girls, but nothing "dress-up" for boys. What. the. hell. I was getting pretty irate about this because all I wanted was a white shirt for him. After about a month of searching, I gave up the battle and looked online. To add fuel to the fire, I couldn't find one online that a.) was his size, b.) looked ugly as hell, c.) didn't have some stupid phrase like, "mommies little lamb" written on it (seriously, why do kids clothing have to say something on it? Simplicity is best baby clothes makers), or d.) wasn't expensive. Finally, I found this number at Carters.com in their clearance section. It didn't even come up when I searched "white button shirt". Kind of annoying Carters. Luckily, it's slightly too big so it has some growing room. I'm so looking forward to the day it doesn't fit him anymore and I have to go on the hunt again for another one. *epic sigh*.

Happy seven months of life, little man!

6 months+updates

I really should start posting more about other things besides Smith, but what can I say?! I love this little man of ours.

Smith turned 6 months on the 22 of February. It's crazy how fast time is going by and it doesn't seem to slow down. ever.

Smith is still doing great as ever. These last 6 months have taught me a lot about myself and what I can really handle as human being. I used to be the mom that would slightly glare at the mother with a screaming child, but now I understand and give them a little smile of, "I know the feeling, hang in there" because I know how that is. It's hard to have a screaming baby in the middle of Target and everyone is looking at you like, "Hey, shut that kid up", but there is only so much a mother can do for a teething baby that has been good all day, but he has finally had it and wants to be held and go to sleep, but you're in the middle of Target and you can't do that until you get everything you need. It's tough.

Sometimes when Smith is screaming, he is doing just that; screaming. Not crying or fussing, just screaming. He's recently found how loud he can get his voice to go and he likes to test it everywhere we go. He sometimes sounds like a little girl screaming, but I assure you, I have a boy. He thinks it's hilarious and so do I. I also find it embarrassing when I realize I'm screaming with him and the teenage boy down the isle is looking at me like I've gone bananas. Kids make you do that. You forget you're around other people and you just start playing with your baby because it's fun. No one else will get that unless you have kids.

Smith is still growing like a weed. He's 16 lbs 8 oz (25th percentile) and 28 inches (90th percentile). This means he will be tall and skinny. We're already finding this an issue when it comes to pants. Finding pants for a baby that is tall and skinny is impossible. All pants for boys are made for chubby babies and it's frustrating. I've almost started to buy him girl pants because they're the only thing that fits him, but I haven't ventured down the path of my baby turning into an emo-boy-playing-a-guitar-hair-in-face route just yet. I might wait a few years to see if Carters, Children's Place or any other baby clothing store will make pants for non-chubby babies.

He's still not crawling. He just rolls to where he wants to go. He's putting weight on his legs and does a really good job of supporting himself, but he still has no interest in crawling.

We now have a new babysitter! Our sister-in-law, Drea (Craig's brothers wife) is now watching him and we were thrilled when she said she could watch him. He just started going there and we're already very pleased with this arrangement. I received this picture from her on his first day with her:

How happy does that kid look?! It was a huge relief to see this picture knowing that Smith was surviving and that Drea was surviving as well. We love Auntie Drea!

If you follow me on Instagram or Facebook, you've seen this video already, but watch it again because it's funny and cute! 

This is Smith trying a pickle for the first time:

Animal crackers in my soup

I'm not sure why that song gets in my head whenever I think of Smith eating solid food, but it just does.

When Smith was about 4 months old we tried to give him oatmeal and it did not go over well. We tried for about 2 weeks and it was nothing but an uphill battle. The internet, aka: the all knowing, said he should be ready since most kids are ready by 4 months old. I thought something was wrong and I asked about it at his 4 month check-up. The Dr. said he isn't ready and that all kids do things when they are good and ready. For example: Smith was rolling over (back to stomach, stomach to back) by 3 months old. Most babies aren't at this stage at this age. He was also doing babbling and was very alert at 2 weeks and I guess this isn't always normal either. However, he isn't quite sitting up on his own yet (at 6 months) and has zero interest in crawling. Anyways, my Dr. told me to wait a little white before giving him solids and he also advised me of a recent study that showed kids who start solids too early can end up with a gluten intolerance. So we continued with a bottle and things went back to normal.

About 3-4 weeks ago, Smith started waking up a lot more during the night. He was up 3-4 times a night and every time he wanted to eat. Craig and I were exhausted and weren't sure why he was acting up all the sudden since he had always been a good sleeper. We tried to feed him oatmeal cereal again, but he wasn't having it. We gave up and a friend and my brother mentioned that there were flavors that we could try and he might like those better (praise to all parents who know this stuff already and care to share their wisdom). We bought banana and the kid loves it! He is now sleeping through the night and he is a much, much happier baby.

After this experience, I put a giant mental sticky note in my brain that says, "they will do things when they are ready. Every kid is different".

I have a feeling there are going to be more messy faced pictures. 

peices

“Folks are usually about as happy as they make their minds up to be.”
― Abraham Lincoln

Oh, Abe. I think everyone can learn a little someone from you now and then. In fact, this quote couldn't have come at a better time. 

If you blog, or do any sort of social media, you know what it's like to run across someone's profile, blog post, photo etc. and the thought of, "why can't my hair be that gorgeous? Why can't I look good in dark lipstick without looking all "vampy"? why can't I afford extravagant vacations?" etc. Maybe not everyone has these feelings, but I sure do.
I'm happy with my life and I need to remember all the things that I do have that others may not. I'm beyond grateful for all the things I do have and I need to be happy with who I am and how others see me. Everyone see's you differently then you see yourself. I will always find my flaws while others may not even notice these things. My husband always tells me how beautiful I am, but I will immediately say something negative about myself rather then just taking the compliment. I need to stop doing this and figure out how to love myself. I wouldn't say that I'm not confident about myself, but in someways I'm not confident at all. For example: I know I'm an quirky/awkward person, my personality can sometimes come across as "bitchy" because I have a very, very dry sense of humor. These are things that I've accepted and I'm 100% okay with that. I just need to learn to be confident in myself in other ways. I need to learn to make the very best of every situation, learn from it, grow from it, and be happy with it.

Enough of my rant. Here are some pictures and some updates. 

 ^ ^I love them both so much I could split in half.

 ^^ Grammy (my mother) bought Smith a mustache binki. Smith isn't one to take binki's, but we stick this in his mouth just to get a good laugh every once in a while.

 ^^ his current favorite bath toy is a 44 oz cup from the gas station. We try to give him other toys, but they aren't as cool as that cup. 

 ^^ Tummy time on the boppy is quite the experience now. He tries to push himself forward once we have him on it, but then this happens. We then spend the next 5 minutes watching him try to figure out how to get out of this position. He grunts and tries so hard to either roll over, or go forward. We get a good laugh out of it.

 ^^ Little Olive Grae was born! Smith is excited to have a cousin that he can run around with when the time comes. Smith doesn't know he is excited, but I decided that as his mother. She's super precious and I was excited to take her newborn photos. I love looking at these photos and seeing those extra wrinkly hands.

nip it in the bud

Smith decided to get sick, which was loads of fun. We had the best week of staying home in bed, going to doctors, staying up all night with high fevers, etc.

All joking aside, it was miserable. It was my least favorite week of being a mom, but I also learned a lot. Win, lose situation I guess.

Wednesday started with a small cough, so I thought to myself, "Hey, be wonder woman and take you baby into the doctor today so you can nip that cough in the bud". So, I left work early and took him in. Our doctor marked it as a cold and a few remedies to help it. Off to Target I went to buy the things he recommended. He took a long bath, ate, and went to bed. I went to bed feeling like a million bucks and was about to buy myself a 'Worlds Best Mom' mug. 

[Fast forward to the next morning]

Smith woke up screaming. He's never woken up like this, so it startled me and I rushed into his room. I picked him up and he was burning up. I stripped him down to his diaper, took his temp. and held him to calm him down. His temp was at 100.5. He didn't want to be put down and I didn't want to leave him with our sitter like this, so I called in sick.

For the next 3 days, his temp. was up, then down, up, then down. It was awful to see a baby be happy, to screaming the next. The highest his temp. got was 101.8. Luckily, our doctor was able to take every phone call I made to his office (I love our doctor so very much). He reassured me that I was doing everything right and gave me a few more tips to make him comfortable. There isn't much you can do for a 5 mo. old baby that is sick, unfortunately.

Thursday night was the worst. He wanted to be held. all. night. long. I sat in bed with him, watching 2AM television with a fan beating on us and cold rags on his chest and head to keep that temp. down. I didn't sleep at all that night because I was so worried about him. He would wake up crying, then he would zone off, and he would crash again.

It was a roller-coaster of a weekend for me as a first time mom. I don't know if I can handle a sick baby again, but I know it will happen. At least I can prepare myself, right?

hardware ranch 2014

Last weekend, my family and I headed up to Hyrum to a place called Hardware Ranch. My family has been up there a few times and we love going. If you aren't familiar with Hardware Ranch, it's a Wildlife Management Area that is a popular spot to view elk when the animals are wintering in a large meadow. At times, 500-600 elk can be seen there, including some large bulls.
During winter, elk are fed at the ranch to keep them in the high country, out of farmers' fields. Feed is taken out into the meadow on horse-drawn wagons and sleds. The elk become use to the wagons and sleds and are not startled. During the winter, people can ride on the sleds and get quite close, providing great opportunity to view and photograph the animals.

The wind was blowing and there was a storm warning all day for the area, but the storm never came through, but it was still freezing. I was worried that Smith would be too cold and cranky, but we bundled him up and he quickly fell asleep, so he was quite comfortable.

Here are a few pictures that I took. 

 All in all, it was a fun day trip even if the wind was blowing and we were all freezing by the end of it. If you've never been, I recommend going. Its $5 bucks per person for the ride and it's about 30 minutes long.

4 months

Smith is growing up so fast and it has been so much fun to watch him grow, and learn new things everyday.

On December 22, he turned 4 months old. I did a 3-4 months old update just a few weeks ago but he has already changed and grown so much since then that I thought it would be a good idea to do a 4 month update.

At four months, Smith is:

• Rolling over! This is a big step for him, and a big step for us as parents. Our eyes have to be more watchful and we can't let him be on our bed as much without putting up barriers. He hasn't figured out how to get from his stomach to his back, but he's getting there,
• Smiling and laughing. This has been so fun to watch him laugh at (almost) everything we do. Craig and I stop at nothing to make this kid laugh. It makes us so happy to hear his sweet, little giggles.
• He loves being tossed up in the air. We're super careful about this since he's still so little but he loves it so much 

• He's getting really good at recognizing family and friends. Once he figures out who they are, he smiles and sometimes laughs. 
• He loves music. Craig always plays the guitar and sings for him and I will sometimes hum for him. Anytime he is fussy, we play some of our favorite music or sing him our favorite songs and he'll calm down. I hope his love for music continues to grow.

•  He's finally 100% in his own crib! He was sleeping in his swing for his first few months and I was in denial about putting him in his own bed because I was convinced he wouldn't sleep as well. Sure enough, I was wrong. He now sleeps 6-8 hours without waking up.

• He's discovered his feet and loves to suck on his toes. He will get mad if I have socks on him and he can't get to his toes.
• He's also discovered is tongue and loves to stick it out. He tries to grab our tongues if we stick ours at him.  I blame his Uncle Cody for this.

• He's a very happy baby. His babysitters tell us that he is a good baby and he pretty content with just hanging out. (Sorry if this isn't all the time, Emma! You're still his favorite Auntie!)

Stats at his 4 month appointment:

• just shy of 27 inches. 95th percentile for height
• 14 lbs. 10 oz. 50th percentile for weight

rollie pollie

 Just a few days shy of 4 months old, Smith is rolling over!

  

He's been trying to do this for a little while now and it seems like it just happened over night. It's so exciting to see him grow up and reach this point, but I'm also terrified for the crawling stage when he will get getting into everything. Oh, what an adventure that will be!