Picture Time

Here are a few pictures that I promised.  Unfortunetly I haven't been in a very good picture taking mode lately so there aren't a lot of them.  Usually these days when I go to take a picture of her she just trys to grab it, like so...

But here are a few of my favorites pictures from the past two weeks.  Adalyn is 11 months old now (don't know if I had mentioned that before)  She is cruising around and getting some lovely head bruises from crashing on the cement.  She recently had a growth spurt and is now very frustrated that she can't walk under the kitchen table, someday she will learn... But she does love using her height advantage to get into more stuff like the computer and playing the piano when mom is practicing.

We also enjoyed the lovely wet weather that we had last week.  It was a nice break from the heat.  :)Adalyn and I played in it a few times and she loved it! p.s. even though she has her binky in if you look really close she has a huge grin on her face. 

Ok Adalyn is waking up from her nap now so I have to go.  But these last couple are of her hanging out with her new found love aka. her baby doll and her other love, daddy.  And that is all for now, have a great day!

Inside My Head

Adalyn has been keeping me quite busy these days chasing after her and trying to avoid major messes like toilet water all over the bathroom and other fun stuff like that.  So while I don't really feel up to writing a "real" post tonight I do want to share randomness from our life. 

-Today I popped out.  (as in my belly)  Totally crazy how it can happen so all of a sudden.  Picture coming soon...I think.

-2nd trimester has treated me well.  I know I have said it before, but it still amazes me at how good I feel.  :)

-I am LOVING experimenting in the kitchen these days.  And McKay hasn't hated everything that I have made.  Such a good sport ;)

-At a year we were going to take bottles, binkies, and baby food away from Adalyn; but the poor girl only has two teeth so I think the baby food will stay for a while.  She enjoys people food but I can tell that she gets frustrated by some food that is just harder to eat with out teeth.

-McKay has been otherwise engaged a lot these past two weeks (can't you tell by all the random blog posts) I have gone through a mixture of emotions with it.  loving the "me" time, tired of it, frustrated, jealous, etc.  But today I think I have finally reached a good point and have accepted it as life and I am happy to be done with the mental roller coaster.

-Lets talk strollers... seriously how many do you need?  We had four with Adalyn, but only ever used three of them.  Now with a second child we have to go buy them all over again but in the double form.  They are bigger, heavier, and more expensive.  lovely.

-Speaking of strollers unfortunetely my jogging stroller wheel came off during our run this morning.  It has happened before and this time I don't think it is fixable. :(  It was a garage sale purchase so it isn't a TERRIBLE loss, but still don't know how I am going to run for the rest of the summer.  I guess that makes it a good thing that I have to go buy a new double jogging stroller.

-Now that Adalyn is getting older we/I have started calling her Addie more.  This makes me happy because that was the plan all along but it just didn't fit her in the beginning so we just called her Adalyn.  

-I have almost narrowed down my list of boy and girl names for this next baby to a couple of names for each gender.  I am not sure if McKay's list and mine match up so that will be the hard part (convincing him to love the names I do)  We find out in a week and a half what we are having, but aren't announcing till we have our gender reveal party/Adalyn's 1st birthday party on August 18th.  So it will still be a while for you guys (Sorry)

-Our grass and our garden are growing beautifully.  Can't wait for the fresh veggies!

Well that is all for now, McKay will be home from the temple soon, yay!  Have a great night!  Promise I will post pictures soon...

I Might Have to Try this in the Future

Ok mom post here, sorry guys.  This one involves nursing. 

Nursing was an interesting experience for me with Adalyn.  Really didn't know what I was doing, or all the ins and outs of it.  Honestly it probably could have gone really well if I had just understood the whole picture.  But I gave in often with a bottle and hardly covered up at home so public nursing almost went out the window because she didn't like to be covered up.  So my milk supply (which was amazing in the beginning) dwindled and we both got frustrated from the lack of milk so at six months I quit.  She loved her bottle and to be honest so did I, SO. MUCH. EASIER.  But I "get" the nursing thing now and I plan to nurse this next baby a lot longer and have it be more of their main food source (the last month with Adalyn it was just a snack morning and night).  It isn't going to be very much fun, nursing isn't something that I enjoy (maybe if I had a cuddly baby I would) but it will be worth it.  I mean I don't work outside the home, I will only have two kids, and I should have a good milk supply... so no excuses for me.

 I have been prepping myself mentally for a while now  about how I AM going to nurse and not give in with a bottle, so when I ran across this blog post on one of the blogs that I enjoy reading (Check it out here) about a way to get rid of mastitis without the drugs and I thought it was too good to not pass on.  Not saying it will work for everyone, but I think it will be worth a try for me.  I had two infections with Adalyn while I nursed (one at 2 weeks old and one at 5 months) they are killer and so terrible to try and function through.  Getting rid of one of them cost us a good chunk of money for the medication because of the insurance plan we are/ were on.  It will even out in the end since we are having a baby this year but it sure wasn't fun paying it then, yet totally worth it at the same time to feel better. 

Well that is all for today, my sweet husband comes home tomorrow and I am SO excited!  We have missed him terribly, but we hope that he had a good time backpacking through the mountains since camping and hiking are truly some of his favorite things.  Guess we will find out tomorrow how it all went.  Have a good night!     

Daughter Like Mother

       As of today Adalyn's favorite toy is her baby doll. YAY! As a child I was slightly...ok a lot obsessed with baby dolls. Loved them. Thus far in Adalyn's life I haven't really pushed her to play with her dolls. She never really seemed that interested in them so I actually ended up putting them away for a while (we rotate our toys around here to keep things exciting). Well she found one of them the other day and it is now her new best friend. So today I showed her a little bit about how to "play" with it like being soft, rocking it to sleep, and giving it kisses. She would try and copy me and would give her baby kisses too. It is so fun and I hope she really enjoys playing with baby dolls over the years. I also think this is good for her with the new baby coming in a few months (pretty sure she is going to have a super hard time adjusting because she LOVES being the center of attention).

      Also today I hosted my first party at our new house.  It was a girls night and super fun.  I enjoyed planning it and decorating the house.  I have come to realize since moving up to Idaho that I LOVE planning and hosting parties.  My parents entertained a lot when I was a kid so I learned a lot of the tricks of the trade.  It is so fun for me, and it kind of makes me sad that we live so far away from all our family and friends so I don't get to do it very often.  We are making new friends up here I just need to get out and invite people over more.  Adalyn is a very social little girl so she enjoyed mingling with the ladies and having someone else around instead of just mommy.  I am amazed at how quickly that girl can go stir crazy in the house.  She HAS to get out of the house at least once a day or she gets so cranky.  crazy girl.  I need to come up with more things to entertain her. 

Well that is about it, sorry for the randomness of the post.  Have a great night!

Weekend Blues

So this weekend was not very fun. Lots of work, a few small disasters, and a teething baby. But life since then (meaning monday and today) have proved to be not be too bad and we are almost recovered from it. Although it was not very fun a few good things did come of the crazy weekend. So instead of complain to you (which I already wrote a long post doing just that, but decided to not post it) I will share the positive, because life really is not that bad we just have to choose to see the good.

1. We FINALLY layed sod. So happy to have grass, really praying that it survives this July heat.

2. We now have a new to us washing machine that works. Yay for clean clothes!

3. Thursday night we went out to dinner and I got some yummy steak fries that I have been craving. I SERIOUSLY love going out to eat, it is a sickness I tell you.

4. We successfully got McKay off on his High Adventure with the scouts. Hope he has fun! He tried to convince me to get in his bag too and come with him, but 5 days in the middle of no where is NOT my idea of "fun"

5. Our cutie pie is offically 11 months old today. Just saying that makes me smile. :) Oh how much joy she brings to our life, and McKay reminds her of that frequently. He will often randomly tell her how great life is with her here. so sweet... To celebrate I made pancakes today for the first time in a long time (we have been on a waffle kick). Secretly I actually made them for McKay as he left for his hike, but she doesn't have to know that.

And last but not least I got to hear the heart beat of our second little miracle yesterday. (over Adalyn's cries because someone was touching her mama, when did she get so protective?) Everything sounds great and looks good. I feel AMAZING now that the first trimester is over, and we are getting excited to find out what we are having at the end of this month.

Well you know... I think I feel better, life is great the crazy weekend is over, and Adalyn is napping. Yep life is good. Have a great day!

4th of July Idaho Style

After the weekend in Utah we headed back to Idaho. My parents came up the next day and we began our three day festivities. Monday night was Zumba with Corinne. Fun to have a partner to go their with. :) Tuesday was disk golf which is a favorite of the boys. The girls usually end up just going for a walk while they play.

Oh and I should let you know that many of these first pictures are stolen/borrowed from Mykelti's facebook page because I failed at taking my camera with us on Tuesday. Anyways, after the park we headed to the lake that we went camping at a little while ago. This time we were on the beach side and it was SO lovely. No red ants and lots of beautiful grass. We brought lunch there and our swimsuits so that we could get wet since it was a hot day. Even though the water was freezing Adalyn loved getting in it and playing with the sand.

Later that night after a delicious dinner of homemade fetticine and brocoli we headed to the local minor league baseball game. Home of the Chukkars. We didn't stay till the end because it had been a long day and Adalyn NEEDED her beauty rest, but I am pretty sure they lost. Bummer :(

Wednesday on the actual 4th of July we started out by watching Corinne run in the Firecracker 5k. She beat her goal time which is awesome and I totally wish that I had been running with her (but I knew I would be SUPER slow so it was not worth the money)! McKay stayed home from the 5k and let Adalyn sleep a little bit. She was exhausted from the day before.

Right after the 5k we waited a few hours for the parade. Adalyn was only so impressed at this age, but she did love eating her dum dum. We were at the very end of the parade so most of the candy was gone. It was really hot in the sun where we were sitting but if you got a chance to be in the shade it was actually quite lovely. Idaho weather this summer is proving to be not too bad yet.

That afternoon we relaxed...mmmm and it was heavenly. 2 hour nap. yes please :) Adalyn cruised around the house like this and we watched movies and played games.

Later we left Adalyn with Mykelti at home and headed to the booths on the river. I tried my first funnel cake yum! But wow I should never eat it again, so much oil and sugar! McKay and I especially loved being childless for a few hours and Adalyn enjoyed a nice nap. That night we cooked hamburgers and had a delicious meal. (I was going to do a post on all the food that we had this weekend because Corinne and I tried a lot of new recipes, but I forgot to take pictures of everything so it probably would not be as cool. Sorry) Last on the fun list is fireworks that night over the river. Best show I have ever seen. It was huge. Amazingly there was no wind that day too so it was even better.

Well this is where the fun bus ends. Thanks for reading (seriously). Hope all is going well on your saturday. I am going to go back outside and finish helping with laying the sod. Oh grass, beautiful grass :) Have a great day!

Party before the Party

This past weekend we went to Utah to visit my family and my mom's family.  It was my cute cousin's baptism on Saturday night and then we had a fun party at Craig and Libby's new AMAZING house after.  Adalyn was ALL OVER THE PLACE.  The girl does not stop moving.  Seriously.  We tried to get some decent pictures at the party and at my parents house and she just wont look at the camera anymore.  So this is what we get for awhile till she learns how to hold still :) 

Oh and we must mention the stairs. She is LOVES them, but wont figure out how to go down them on her own. But at the party in Libby's new house where there are LOTS of stairs. She was in heaven especially because there were so many willing hands to carry her back down them. :) She is so spoiled

Another thing Adalyn LOVES is Watermelon and this time that she got to eat/make a mess with it she had a partner in crime. Doesn't that look fun to clean up...

The rest of the day on Saturday was spent chatting, house touring, and eating cake (it was my OTHER cousin Jacob's birthday. Here are a few pictures of the cousins hanging out in the basement...

Also while we were there we/I got to meet Melanie's fiance FINALLY. They are SO cute together and he is a great guy. I am sure McKay will enjoy having someone else close to his age in the family. So I would say is was a successful trip. We loved seeing everyone and it was a great way to spend the weekend before the 4th. Next time I will post about our 4th of July fun when my family came to Idaho to visit us. Have a great day!