where does the time go?

i recently read this washington post article about what stay at home mom's do all day.  i have to admit that i frequently wonder myself.  i feel like i'm doing stuff all day long and then somehow my honey arrives home that evening and i'm struck with the "what on earth did i do all day?" question.  well, to help me answer this question, i've started to sometimes take pictures (of course) to help myself remember and give myself some slack.  

disclaimer: you are about to see pictures of every toiletry i own.  shield your eyes if you're not into that sort of thing.

my honey has 6:30am meetings every sunday morning because he's the ward clerk.  he normally gets home around 10ish and frequently passes out for a little while in the hours before church starts at one.  this was the case this sunday morning.  so while i showered and got ready, baby girl roamed free in our master suite (feel free to laugh...it's a joke... i don't really call my bedroom/bathroom a suite).  i feel like it doubles my time to get ready (while simultaneously halving my patience) when i try to put things away as she takes them out, so this time, i did not try to clean up while the mess was being made.  i just focused on getting ready.  which still took forever because i had to go looking on the floors for everything i needed.

so while my bathroom counter tops and floors normally look like this...

just the bare minimum: soap, lotion, picture frame...

after getting ready for church on sunday, they looked like this...

like a bathroom WWIII with a million toiletry casualties

and dangerous things like nail polish items, bag of edible choking hazards candy, box of tiny jewelry, etc. all had to be taken away and relocated up high. 

this gives me a panic attack just looking at it.

what i would give for my kid to show this enthusiasm to her toys...

so while i could write a novel about my thoughts on this subject, i'll just instead, take a deep breath, sign off, and get some rest, so i can do it all again tomorrow.  

i lead a charmed life.

trunk or treat

saturday was our ward's fall festival/chili cook-off/trunk or treat. our sweet girl was a little bunny and i'm not much for costumes so i wore my orange sweater and black pants. i called myself the official mascott of halloween. my christopher dressed up as santa. it confused quite a few kids.

baby is chomping on a [wrapped] sucker. i was sooo excited about collecting candy this year since baby was only 3 months old last halloween. sooo i'm a little bit bitter about how trunk or treating went down... to say the least. i either got comments from people like "ohhh this is for mommy, isn't it?" or "hmmm, let me find something she can have. here! have a sucker!" as if a nazi mom like me is going to actually give their baby sugar.  it's all about having a positive experience.  does it really matter who's going to eat this crap?  so we cheerfully said "thanks!" and went on our way. thanks? yeah right. i just handed over $15 of milkyways, 3 musketeers, snickers, and twix for santa to hand out to your make-the-rounds-eight-times-kids, don't give my baby a single dum dum and send us on our way.  i got like eight suckers and only 3 pieces of chocolate.  that. is. not. good. enough.  i know i know... i'm a grinch. i really don't care because i'm too busy laughing about it.  i just get a kick about such a double standard.  my husband is giving out good candy to your kids, so get your husband to give out good candy to my kid.  got it?  got it.

one of my favorite things about halloween candy is that you get to eat candy you wouldn't normally buy, or didn't even know existed. my favorite from last night? some sort of starburst gummi gushers. delish.

i used to recieve a card like this every halloween from my precious and adoring grandmother. sadly, not this year.

i feel so betrayed.

can you say... poop?

okay okay, here it is!

ps- she's wearing her halloween costume because i felt like it.  y'know, just for kicks.  i can do that though... because i'm the mom.

snow day

we declared today a snow day.  pj's all day, never leaving the house.  chelsey and griffin came over to be snowed in with us.  i had chelsey park in our garage though, so even though she kinda cheated by leaving her house, it didn't reaaallly count because she wasn't out in the snow.  (side note: after i put baby down to nap this afternoon, i got texts from kirstyn and chelsey at the same time asking about if i still had power.  thankfully i did.  sadly though, they did not.)  anyways, chelsey and griffin came over and we had hot chocolate and we were all in our pajamas (although chelsey was accessorized with a cute scarf and boots... go figure) and it was wonderful.  by late afternoon though baby was getting cabin fever.  we'll be leaving the house bright and early tomorrow morning.

"OH. EM. GEE."

"HE'S HOLDING MY HAND!!!"

{sigh} "that was the best four seconds of my life."

"ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh!"

"seriously?  pictures?  at a time like this?!"

"yeeeesssssss.  back to business."

nothing like a little cold weather to make you frisky want to cozy up in your fleece footies and hold hands, snuggle, and smooch.  luckily baby has experience in this department, and was able to handle griff's advances like a pro.  it was precious.

ps- i hosted a super informal, last minute girls night last night and it was so fun.  i think i may be doing that from now on whenever my honey goes out of town.  which speaking of... he left monday morning before i woke up and was supposed to get back tonight around this time... between midnight and one.  but his flight kept getting delayed and now i don't even know if i'll get to see him before he has to leave for his 6 am meeting.  two things about that:  first, i sure miss my honey.  i do not do well with the separation.  second, my poor honey.

my view

we got snow last night.  white white white as far as the eye can see.

view from bed

looking left

looking right

it's breathtaking.  but really i'm just glad it's not the 7 to 12 inches they forecasted.

pumpkins on mainstreet

today we went to a little patch of pumpkins sitting on mainstreet.  it wasn't a real pumpkin patch but it was good enough.  i took a lot of pictures.  of course.

sadly though, as is the case when i attempt to photograph my baby in public, she will not look at me.  ever.

squinting in the bright colorado sun.  there's a reason photographers don't schedule their shoots at noon.  

hay muchas hay!  how do you like that spanglish?

i'm going to be picking hay out of her shirt/skirt/tights/boots for the next four weeks i swear.

hay much?

gazing heavenward

one

two

three.  notice the gradual turning of the head?  she was watching a group of people walk by.

for the love baby!  just look at me for once!

see?  and holy cow this kid does not stop moving.  where do kids get the energy to run everywhere?

and of course when she smiles, it's not in my direction.  and has random body parts poking out from behind her.

michaela, on the other hand, is a dream.  she sits perfectly still and locks her eyes on you until you've gotten exactly the shot you want.  so even though i only take pictures of her 1% of the time, i always end up with cute ones like these.

she always sucks her thumb while playing with her ponytail.

and this is such a michaela look too

if this was my baby, i'd frame this and put it on my wall.  but... not my baby.

fall!!!

seriously, how pretty is this tree?  this is straight out of the camera.

this was the hay maze... which was fun until baby found the exit.

and this one is my favorite

okay, the last picture isn't terrible.  i think she was talking to me while i took it but i'm going to create the memory that she was actually blowing me a kiss... which she does now.

the weather was incredible.  until it got too hot.  seriously it was at least 80 degrees and the sun was blazing.  baby was sweating.  maybe i was too.  the funny part about that though is that we're supposed to get SIX inches of snow on wednesday.  ha.

colorado has all four seasons.  in the same week.

one year ago

posting pictures of my baby is my way of blogging without really blogging.  it takes way more work to actually think and write.

but i haven't taken any pictures in THREE days (although i actually got out our video camera for the first time in months because our baby was talking like crazy) and so i have no new pictures to post.  oh my heavens, who even knew it was possible?!?!  anyways, since it's 10.23.11 and i have no pictures from today, i looked back and dug up some pictures from 10.23.10 just to flash back and see what we were doing a year ago tonight.

apparently we bundled our baby in a blanket cocoon on that hideous sofa i was sooo happy to leave in california.  california, you deserve it.  i don't miss you.  although i do miss some wonderful people i was sad to leave behind... S.A.R. i'm lookin' at you!

and i guess we also watched a hockey game on honey's crappy laptop since we had no tv.  

man, that is one bald baby.  she's so much cuter now.  and is it just me or does her face look chubby?  those cheeks are enormous, right?

ps- my parents are coming to visit next month!!!  only for a few days but i'm soooooo excited!!!  

pps- one of my favorite friends was telling me yesterday about how her baby can say poop.  i was instantly jealous.  since it's one of my favorite words, i decided to teach my baby how to say "poop" too.  well, i'm happy to report that my baby can say less than 10 words, and one of them is "poop."

who knew?

my christopher took our camera with him on his business trip last week to phoenix.  apparently, this is what you do on "business trips."

golf and hunt?  who knew?  he's going out of town again for a few days next week.  to omaha and vegas.  i wonder what funtivities he'll enjoy without me.  i need to plan a girls night or something to keep me from getting jealous.  when the husband's away, the wifey will play.  right?

ps- those birds are in our freezer right now.  anyone have any good pheasant recipes?

free zoo day!

today was free zoo day!  it was a bit of a struggle this morning getting out of the house (although that seems to happen more often than not these days... what about dressing and eating needs to take two hours?!?!) but sooo worth it.  we were gone from 9 30 to 6 30 and our day was packed with fun.  and for me, not stop talking with kirstyn.  with a non-chatty husband, i really make the most of my girl time.

bad hair day?

the plus side of having a super crappy lightweight umbrella stroller?  a better view!  

the african penguins were baby's favorite.  they were baby sized!  she just laughed and squealed at them.  it was so cute!

kirstyn and michaela!  aren't they pretty?

i know.  she's wet.  it's milk.  from her sippy cup.

this covered wagon thing was fabulous because it was like a giant playpen.  they couldn't escape!

they are such good friends already.  and that girl behind them wanted to be their friend too.

can you believe the size difference of only six months?!

sometimes when i'm trying to photograph my baby, i wish i looked like a six year old... so she would actually look at me.

check it out, we're one for one!  all eyes in the right direction!

we parked right next to this awesome park, so we had to let the girls run around a bit after being in their strollers so long.

hilarious.  i love this kid.

run, run, run, baby girl!  i loved that i didn't have to tell her no.  nothing was off limits or dangerous.  it made her so happy.

playing with leaves

they kept stealing/swapping the sippy cup and then running and playing keep away.  it was hilarious to watch.  kirstyn and i were dying laughing.

more fun with fall leaves

and our lone picture at cafe rio before my camera batteries finally died.

i will say this once and for all, where the sweet pork salad is concerned, costa vida beats cafe rio every time.

after lunch, we turned on some magic nickle creek sleep music and the girls napped all the way home.  and while we hung out in kirstyn's parking lot.  ;-)

so then when they woke up it was 4:00 and i didn't want to make dinner or be domestic so i begged kirstyn to let me hang out and organize her closet a little.  so we did that til her husband got home.  why do i love organizing so much?  it's kind of embarrassing.

and there's this lady in our ward who recently hurt her tailbone and kirstyn had made her a get well card and muffins.  so i signed my name and dropped those off.  i love taking credit for other people's thoughtfulness.  don't you?  

and then i stopped by someone else's house to pick up their compassionate service freezer meals and finally we were on our way home.

baby played so nicely after dinner and since she wasn't wearing her skirt or tights, she was pantsless with just a sweater and fur boots, and it was the cutest thing i've ever not taken pictures of.  well, at least worthy to add to that list.  her little white legs are so itty bitty.  i'm in love with them.

speaking of itty bitty.  she turned 15 months on the 15th and i took her in for a weigh in (per her doctor's recommendation at her 12 month check up), and she's gained two pounds!  she's now up to 18lbs 6oz!  i could barely believe my eyes!  she'll break 20lbs before we even know it!