peekaboo and byu

i can not get enough of this kid. the other day she found my mixing bowls (she normally only goes for certain cabinets and this is not one of them) and kept putting this blue bowl over her head. and taking it off. and putting it on her head again. over and over and over. while walking around and around and around the kitchen.

tonight i was domestic and i did not take a single picture so you'll just have to take my word for it. we had people (kirstyn and jake, chelsey and casey, kelly and mike, bonnie and geoff, kelsey and danny) from our ward and all their kids (we had 7 kids total) and my brother in law brian (since his wife, kelsey, was working) over to watch the byu game which was strangely exciting and ended with a win! all very unusual, but much appreciated. i was able to clean (well, i vacuumed) and make food. we had chips, doritos, an assortment of chocolate candy minis, 7 layer bean dip, bruschetta, rice krispie treat ice cream bars, redvines, chocolate licorice, hot wings and drinks. my dear christopher kept thinking i was inviting too many people, but little did he know that kirstyn and i got a bit carried away at walmart last night (it was 11 o'clock for goodness sake!) and i bought enough food for all of our friends, plus the entire byu team, should they plan on a post game celebration with us here in parker.

anyways, i was domestic. i'm getting much better at being domestic. not that my performance is improving, but my anxiety is significantly decreasing.  and i consider that a success.

which, speaking of anxiety... last night, as i was making my grocery list, just minutes before i was to leave to pick up kirstyn for our walmart trip, my honey and i were watching big bang theory and WE SAW A MOUSE! in our house! a mouse in our house! i jumped up to higher elevation under the pretext of having a better lookout point, and honey waged the battle up close and personal. after 30 minutes of way too much laughter and ridiculousness, the mouse disappeared and i left. luckily, i got a text later from my honey exclaiming, "i swept him out the door!" (i had told him to chase it with a broom because that's what they did in the old black and white movies) and it was a highlight of my night. it was a fun, bonding experience really. i'm just glad it wasn't a spider. i mean, that would have been no laughing matter. by the way, you better believe i picked up a few mouse traps last night to strategically place around our house. this could have been disasterous if my honey wasn't home with me.

oh my goodness is it really 12:30?!?! yikes. time for bed. i am SOOOOO excited for conference tomorrow!

and ps- not that you care, but i even had a homemade fall wreath and a pumpkin to festivize our front door. i should get bonus points for that.

this is what we look like

elder mark

tonight, my brother in law mark, became elder hillier.  honey was still out of town on business (don't worry, he's back now) so he missed it, but baby and i were glad to be there for the happy occasion.  it's bed time so just real quick, here are a few pictures.  and a video.

so there you have it.

a quick fashion tip

need to take your drab outfit all the way to fab?  

belt it!

belts add personality

belts make your outfit look more polished

belts create a slimming effect.  which is especially important from behind.

just what you needed to kick start your wednesday?  you're welcome.

i mean, she's almost 14.5 months old already

my baby is lovely again.  for the most part.  i mean, she IS getting another molar right now.  it's half in half out.  ugh.  1.5 down, 2.5 to go.  and then all those other teeth...

anyways, she is hilarious.  this has always been my most favorite and least favorite age of kids.  well, technically closer to 18 months but y'know... this phase.

she has distinct preferences on what she wants to eat and she'll let you know.  for meals, sometimes i let her choose and sometimes i don't.  but when i'm feeling generous and patient, i will hold up a banana and ask her if she'd like to eat a banana.  and she'll either shake (most often) or nod her head.  normally she shakes her head for everything and when you go back through the options a second time she'll commit to what she wants.

she looks just like a little adult.  i have mixed feelings on this.

she's decided to start signing now.  i mean, i've only been using sign language with her since she was FIVE months old!  i mean, she used to do "all done" and then she stopped for a long time.  but now she does "all done"  (raises one hand with a casual flick of the wrist), "more" (which looks like slow motion clapping since she can't quite figure out how to put her fingers together), and please (gently scratches her chest... mostly just with one hand but is sometimes two).  so those things in combination with shaking and nodding her head... i feel like we're having all out heart to heart conversations conveying every personal detail of our inner-most desires!  it is so fun for me.  every. single. time.

how cute that she posed with her book?  she's saying "thank you aunt liza and cousin skye and cousin will!"

but seriously, i wonder if she'll stop signing again when she gets bored with it.  i'll have to keep finding new signs to keep her interested.  i tried to teach her more for the longest time ever and she would. not. do it.  then one day i showed her please and she's been doing it ever since.  when i started giving her what she wanted when she said please then she brought back those other signs!  i think baby signing is the cutest thing ever.  and i can't believe that it was only a year ago that this talking little individual was just a tiny blob.  now she is a tiny spunky girl!

other things she's loving right now would be my cell phone (still.  of course), shoes (if i take her shoes off when we get home, she whines and brings them to me to help her put them back on), getting into everything in sight, and anything that's not a toy.  what's a good term for that?  i started to say she playes with adult toys but that is definitely NOT correct.  i mean that she likes to play with everyday objects.  like thermometers.  she loves to put the thermometer in and out of it's clear plastic holder.  she also likes things with lids to put on and take off.  one of her favorite "toys" right now is toothbrushes (my favorite one has been missing for two days... i hope to find it soon) which is ironic because ever since her molars started coming in, she does NOT like getting her teeth brushed or even brushing her own teeth but she'll chew on our toothbrushes all morning if we let her.  other favorites include a pack of dental flossers, mascara, q tips, and the zippers of my cosmetics/jewlery bags.  can you tell our bathroom is her favorite place in the house?!?!

she has her favorite drawers and cabinets.  i put some toys in her favorite kitchen cabinet and rubberbanded the cabinet under the sink (her second favorite cabinet in the kitchen)... the rest she only occasionally opens briefly before moving on to bigger and better things.  i reorganized all of her toys last week and it's going much better than before.

i was totally anticipating that she would retrieve toys from the cabinet but it turns out that she likes to be IN the cabinet when she plays with them.

baby girl is also getting really close to saying a lot of words.  i know she's saying words but i have trouble counting it when only my honey and i can tell what she's saying.  but really, today she got so excited when we saw a cat meander through our back yard and she said "cat" several times!  i took a video of it but you can BARELY hear her.  actually I can barely hear her.  i'm sure you don't hear her at all.

all of the personality that comes out of such a tiny person.  i can't believe she understands what i say and then acts accordingly.  which speaking of... one of my very favorite things is when i'm telling her we have to change her diaper, get new clothes on, something random she doesn't want to do, and she takes off running in the opposite direction.  every time she does that i think it's the funniest thing in the world.

anyone else noticing that all of her dresses have been converted to shirts?  swap out the bloomers for leggings and BAM, she'll be wearing this outfit til she turns 2.  or 12.  

anyways, she's pretty amazing.

bikes, slides, and parks oh my

this morning i experienced a little slice of heaven.  we went on a little family bike ride.  there are a million miles of bike trails around here.  and parks too.  and perfect weather.  i love colorado.  have i mentioned that before?  because i. am. in. love.

they're precious aren't they?  they are.

don't judge.  it was soooo sunny.

my honey is so cute.  and such a good dad.

we got tired of climbing the stairs every time so we started lifting her and sending her down on her own.  it worked well.

i think this dog's name might have been honey.  ha.

look how excited she gets over sliding!  i love it!

she seriously couldn't get enough.

and oh my goodness i'm pretty sure this is my favorite shot of the whole day.  the hair!  the hair!

this is a really close second though.  i can't lie.

and we're off.  see ya later!

the relief society broadcast tonight was awesome.  especially president uchtdorf.  of course.  he always delivers.  his words brought tears to my eyes and i could not be more excited for his talk to get posted online.  i can't wait to watch it again.  and once it gets posted i'll link to it here.  oh. my. goodness.  so incredible.  watch the "you are not forgotten" little snipit.  it made me cry.

who's with me?!?!

i'm on pinterest.  i just started so i know next to nothing.  but i think if you go to http://pinterest.com/carrieelise/ then you can see all my stuff (this is for you liza).

so who's with me?!?!  leave me your link so i can check out your pins.  do it!  now!

in other news...

this morning i woke up at 8:30 to a wonderful text from my friend kirstyn saying something along the lines of "i found the most awesome garage sale, i'm going to the store to get cash and then i'm coming back.  come!"  so i got ready, got my baby up and ready, ate a little, and then we were out the door.

i am at the garage sale for seriously half a second before i have major deja vu (that's french for "already seen" in case you didn't know).  i have seen all this stuff before!  well, not all of it.  but probably half of it.

there are two women running this garage sale and one looks slightly familiar and i'm pretty sure her name is renee.  well, long story short, that was indeed renee... the previous owner of our current house!  i've been wanting to meet her for months (more accurately, since april, when we actually bought this place) and fate brought us together at this garage sale!

actually, i'm not really good at making things short so here's the slightly longer story.  i told kirstyn my suspicions (which i was actually really positive about) and we agreed that it might be awkward or uncomfortable for renee if i accosted her with this information so i didn't say anything.  she actually left with one of her kids and said she'd be back later.  in the mean time, i bought a few of renee's old things (renee had fabulous taste... she had our house decorated beautifully) from her friend lisa who was manning the sale.  and then i left.

we went to the library for story time and to pick up saving ceecee honeycutt and pride and prejudice on dvd (which i'm so sad about because i opened the case tonight and it was empty).  and then we went home for a few craft supplies.  and then we went to kirstyn's to make these little get well cards we found on pinterest.  i still need to take a picture of my finished product.  okay.  here it is!

crafting is one of those really distant talents i occasionally attempt to develop.  like cooking.

anyways, on our way home, i felt like i should swing by the garage sale again.  as i was parking my car i felt super super stupid but i knew they'd seen me so i was past the point of no return.  i walked up and was warmly greeted by renee, who'd been informed of my identity by her friend, lisa.  we talked as if we were old friends and exchanged multiple hugs.  after 10 or so minutes i had to break up our love fest (past nap time and i'd left baby in the car... windows down, 20 feet away... with a toy and i was feeling a little guilty about neglecting her) but we exchanged numbers and renee said i could have anything i wanted left over from the garage sale and that for the bigger items, she would be happy to bring them to my house for me since i don't have a truck.  anyways, it was glorious.  i love that woman.  and i love her house.  i mean, my house.  all of these keeps making me think of adoption and birth parents contacting the adopted family or vice versa.  yes i just said that.  ha.  anyways...

nap time was short but it worked out because i was able to make it to the post office before it closed!  and then we went straight to the in laws for pizza and the byu game.  came home during half time to put our exhausted baby to bed and watched byu win.  and then honey passed out on the sofa (of course) and fifty million hours later i'm still awake and on the internet (of course).  this is getting to be a real problem.  i need to work on this.  i have a problem.  i really need to work on this.

but really, isn't that a cool story about meeting renee?  it 100% made my day.

and back to the beginning... leave me your pinterest link.  or tell me the more technologically savvy way go about this whole pinning madness.

goodnight!

our other home at home

we spend a lot of time in this ball pit. A WHOLE LOT. it would be our home away from home except it's here at home. so it's just a more concentrated home at home.

this morning baby enjoyed a nice playdate while i went to a book of mormon class at church. and we went to the park with kirstyn and michaela and the weather was gorgeous. baby loves slides these days. she's loving everything more these days... well, the last two days. i guess her new molar isn't hurting so much anymore because she's gotten her appetite back, she's sleeping through the night again, and she's not so fussy anymore. she's just happier. and cuter for that matter.

and in case you were wondering, we had taco soup, corn bread, and a spinach salad with mandarin oranges, craisins, and pecans tonight for dinner. ordinarily it would have just been taco soup, but my christopher's grandparents are in town visiting and we had them over for dinner. hence the cornbread and salad. you know how it is... gotta go all out for the grandparents in law.

has anyone ever read saving ceecee honeycutt? i'm picking it up from the library tomorrow.

it was a nice day

this morning kirstyn's little girl came over to play with us for a few hours and it was GLORIOUS.  it put baby in such an amazing mood all morning.  none of that sensitive groggy stuff for the whole first hour.

we went to walmart.  it was successful.

nap was also a success.

i made an even unhealthier version of this meatloaf recipe.  it was heavenly.

it's cold and it feels like fall.

today i did not pinterest at all.  good for me!

burgundy and white game

tonight we went to colorado springs with two of my christopher's brothers and watched the avs play... against themselves... at the air force academy. not your average hockey game but it was awesome. way cool to see the avs play in such an intimate setting. i spent the whole game texting my friend, sarah cory's sister, which made my good night infinitely better.

ps- my dinner consisted of buffalo ranch sunflower seeds, sunny d, reeses, m&ms, those peanut butter cracker sandwiches, and then chick fil a and high c fruit punch on the way home. i feel naseous.

she's a real person now

i'm going to come clean a little.

maybe you remember, maybe you don't.  i tried not to write about it more than necessary because i didn't want it to come off the wrong way but, baby girl was the easiest, most angelic baby ever born.  she cried twice in her first four weeks alive.  once at the hospital getting her newborn bath and when she was three weeks old and i took her on a walk on a windy california beach.  both times were less than a minute and a half.  the only way i'd know if she was asleep or awake was if i walked in her room to check.  i would swaddle her, lay her down and leave.  "set it and forget it" always came to mind.  i'd peek in every hour or so to check on her.  around that three hour mark, if she was still sleeping, i'd wake her up to eat and play.  often though, i'd go in to find her just hanging out, wide eyed and waiting.  she could be hungry, tired, poopy, bored, overstimulated, you name it, and she wouldn't cry or fuss.  at 9 weeks old she was sleeping 12-13 hours a night without waking up.  and then she'd take three 3 hour naps during the day.  she was only awake for about an hour at a time in which i could hold her and play with her or i could just lay her down so she could watch me clean or do the dishes.  it was a very charmed life.

fast forward to now.  none of that applies anymore.  travel happened.  teething happened.  growth spurts happened.  travel happened again.  teething happened again.  packing and moving happened.  even more travel happened.  weaning happened.  molars happened.

and individuality happened.

my days are so very different now.  i know that's to be expected.  a newborn isn't like a toddler.  but everyone will lead you to believe that toddlers are easier.  i knew this wouldn't be the case for us because it was physically impossible for my newborn to get any easier, but it has still been a little difficult at times.

now, my baby fusses.  she cries.  she wakes up during the night.  her naps can be inconsistent.  she's a picky eater.  she's mobile.  she yells.  she gets into everything.  she gets hurt.  she requires constant attention.  she tests my patience.  she has opinions.

she's a real person now.

before, she was my little baby doll.  i dressed her up and posed her for picture after picture.  i fed her whatever i wanted her to eat, whenever i wanted her to eat it.  i took her wherever i wanted to go.  she slept whenever i wanted her to and for how long i wanted her to and where i wanted her to.  she stayed where i put her and played with what i gave her.  my self centered life was able to go on exactly as it always had.

these days, more is required of me.  sometimes i have to give up sleep.  sometimes i give up activities.  sometimes i give up my OCD.  sometimes i give up my physical energy.  sometimes i give up my sanity.  sometimes i have to swallow my pride and admit defeat.  sometimes i have to strategize.  just kidding.  always i have to strategize.  strategy is key.

but it's sooooo worth it.  it's fun.  and exciting.  and rewarding.  when i hear my baby wake up, i rush into her room to get her.  i jump up and down and talk in a creepy high-pitched sing song voice because i am so giddy in love with her and so excited to play.  i love my little girl like crazy.  i'm so thankful for her and that i get to be her mother.

these days, it's not so incredibly easy like it used to be.

it's soooo much better than that.

i'm spending too much time on pinterest

k.  the followup to the story is that around 11:30 or so (who knows?!?  not me!) baby girl semi woke up and realized she wasn't in her own bed.  then she woke up for real and wouldn't lay back down.  i took her up to her bed (our bedroom is on the first floor, in case you didn't know.  also, our mailbox is three houses down in the cul de sac at the end of our street), gave her a pacifier, and put her in bed.  i honestly couldn't believe it worked so easily.  thank goodness for that!

anyways, we had a great weekend and stake conference was fantastic.  so was the weather and going to the in laws for dinner this evening.

how was your weekend?  what was the best part?

or the most awkward.  that sounds more fun.

now what?

my honey has a tendancy in the evenings to fall asleep in places other than our bed.  it is most often on a sofa or the floor, which is much more than i can say for my only brother walter who frequently falls asleep sitting straight up or even at the kitchen table.  when guests are present.  very noisy guests.  and more than ten of them.

anyways, i digress.  tonight my honey fell asleep in our bed (YEAY!), with his clothes on and contacts in and teeth unbrushed (BOO!), on top of the covers (BOO!), laying diagonally (BOO!), with his head at the foot of the bed (BOO!),

RIGHT NEXT TO OUR BABY!!!  (who also has her clothes on and teeth unbrushed.  luckily she does not have contacts in... but she doesn't have a fresh diaper on.)

BOO!!!!!!
so now what?!?!  normally i would just wake him up, tell him to get ready for bed, and be done with it.  but what do i do about our baby?!?!  i can't wake her up because it'll be like a power nap and she won't want to go back to sleep.  and i can't just cozy on up with them because they are taking up the entire bed with how they're sprawled and i have a thing about needing to be under the covers.  i'm that person that can't go to sleep in an unmade bed.  it needs to be in perfect order before i crawl in.

and i can't just sleep in a different bed because 1) i don't like to sleep alone and 2) i'm sure my honey would roll on top of our baby... if she hadn't already managed to fall off the bed herself.

sometimes i feel like a single mom of 2.  one very big, one very tiny.  both exceptionally precious.

ps- tonight we went on a family date to walmart and bought me a bike.  with my honey's bike already having a babyseat, we're all ready to take advantage of the millions of miles of bike trails around here!  woohoo!

i made dinner

dear liza,

thanks for the dinner idea.  i made the tortellini spinach bake in creamy lemon sauce tonight and it was delicious.  chris gave it an 8.6 and i think it was even better than that.  the cheesiness was heavenly and the sauce was so good that i was able to feed baby the spinach from it and she came back for more.  a huge success since she's refused spinach in any form for the past three weeks. anyways, it wasn't as simple as most things on my repertoire, but i think it'll go faster the second time around since i'll have made it before.  so this will go on my steadily expanding "things i can make for dinner" list.

how did you like it?

love,

your adoring littlest sister

who's counting?

someone's really good at making a mess

just me? oh well.

happy 14 months sweet girl!

i missed something

today it was in the 40's.  and raining.  i loved it.  wearing sweaters, being cozy inside, curling up with a book...  normal wintertime stuff.

but isn't fall supposed to follow summer?!?!  and did it really only last 3 days?!?!

i'm crossing my fingers our grass will turn green again with all this rain.  cross yours too and maybe it'll happen!

ps- i did zumba tonight for my first time ever.  for our relief society activity.  OH. MY. GOODNESS. it was soooo hilarious.  now i know what all the hype is about.  i equally loved it and sucked at it.  both in epic proportions.

some writing

i don't do a whole lot of writing these days.  i'm going to try to be better about that.   so here are some thoughts.

baby got a molar last week!  it's on the bottom left and when i first found it, the surrounding gums were bloody.  i'm guessing that explains some fussiness that's been going on.

i have sooooo many pictures from the past two months that i need to get facebooked and blogged.  i was planning on doing some of that during nap time today but i seemed to have spent my time picking hymns for upcoming sundays and uhhh, i'm really not sure what else i was doing during nap time.  i hate when that happens.

speaking of naps, baby's naps are anywhere between 2 hours and 3.5 hours.  it's wonderful.  we get the whole morning to play, lunch at noon, nap from 1-4, and then take a walk or play until dinnertime.  this is the life.

since the pool closed last monday, we've been hitting up story time at the library a lot more often.  we go for story time but then we just hang out.  baby explores and tries to make new friends while i look at the pictures in kids books.  i can not wait until she's old enough to love kids books.  can. not.  i secretly have a goal to read every book in the kid's section of the parker library.  my kid better love reading.

the weather here is sooo nice.  some days feel like fall, some still feel like summer.  temps hovered around 70 today and it was glorious.

i love parker.  i love colorado.  i love absolutely everything about living here.  it is amazing.

my christopher and i really love weeding.  frequently we'll go on a walk around the neighborhood or just to the mailbox and when we reach our driveway again, we'll just sit ourselves down and pick weeds.  baby likes it too.  she just hangs out in her stroller and watches.  my honey likes picking weeds out of the grass.  i like pulling them up from cracks in the driveway or sidewalk, or in between rocks.  since i've already pulled up all the weeds in our driveway, sidewalk, and rocks, i sat myself on our neighbors driveway and started pulling their weeds.  baby hung out in the stroller and i picked weeds.  it was perfect.  until their 21 year old daughter came home.  that was embarrassing trying to explain why i was weeding her driveway.  i told her not to tell chris.  of course.  ; )

dvr helps me to be a better wife.  football is sooo much more bearable when you can fastforward through everything that isn't an actual play.  i enjoy football, but really, there is a lot of fluff to tolerate between plays.  right now we're watching the broncos lose.  they better turn things around or i will have a sad husband.  and so will my wonderful friend lydia.  and our husbands do not deserve to be sad.  not over football.

it is a bittersweet thing for sure, but my baby is definitely not a baby anymore.  i will have you know though that my child will continue to be my baby until i have a new baby.  i realize this could be a while (for those of you who asked, no, there is nothing to announce...i will for sure keep you posted on that should something come up) but i don't care.  i will always have a baby.  it's just a matter of which child will fill that role.  and right now, that responsibility is with my first born.

my baby can run.  and climb.

tonight i spent time trying to decide what shows i want to get into this season.  i've never had to do that before because this is the first time i've ever had a tv/channels in my adult life.  i'm a grown up now and apparently grown ups are excited about their favorite shows starting up again.  i'm just trying to get with the program.  suggestions are welcome.  feel free to email them to me if you're too ashamed to admit your laundry list in the comments section.

okay, i've been informed that's it's bedtime.

goodnight!

we miss stanford football

we had a lot of fun watching the stanford game.  byu, sadly, not as much.

like father like daughter

clapping for a good play

she really was captivated

pick and choose

it appears someone is getting a little selective about their kashi. the same someone who used to gobble it all down has decided that now she doesn't like the tiny square shaped ones. what am i supposed to do with them? put them back in the box?!

this was her reaction when i confronted her about things. she's not really budging.

separate but equal

tonight i caught my christopher telling baby girl that when the time comes, we will love her equally as much as our new baby. think he's anxious for more kids?

no pressure or anything.

the face

my baby can make a funny face. on purpose. it is absolutely hilarious. 99% of the time it is when she's in her highchair. i can tell her to make her face and she will. or i can just do it and she'll laugh and mimic it. anyways, the funniest part is that she cracks herself up. she can't even see her face but she knows she's doing something funny. how do kids learn these things?! i'm blown away. so when she started making her face while we were playing, i attempted to take pictures of it. the settings were all wrong (as you can tell from the horrible picture quality) but i didn't want to take the time to change it. the first two pictures i got were the laughing after the face was over. but the third time i finally got the face! it just looks creepy in the picture. what i really need to do is get a video of it. of her making the face, laughing, face, laughing, face, laughing, and on and on. it is priceless.

so yes, i took almost 100 pictures today and these are the three i chose to share. i'm really behind on my picture sharing. i've been watching too much gossip girl.

in other news, it went from summer to winter overnight. today was maybe the first day i can ever recall of a day in colorado where the sun didn't even make an appearance. seriously, it is sunny every day here. except for today. today was the first day in the history of colorado that it was overcast all day long. i took advantage of our 55 degree weather thought. we spent all morning at the library for story time and playing and then we came home and made zucchini bread while listening to piano music on pandora. and when it came time for baby's nap, i put her in these fleece froggy pajamas. it was such a cozy afternoon and one of those perfect moments in time. i wish i could put that moment in a freezer bag and save it for later. why can't we save our moments? there needs to be an app for that.

anyways, let's come to a general consensus and also take a general poll. first, this blog is extremely boring. second, does anyone still read this?!?!