Jolley's Ranch

Last week, we had a very fun-filled, busy 4th of July week. Seriously. We celebrated ALL week long, and wore ourselves out :) T's sister Mical and her family came to town so we jam packed our week with fun so all of the cousins could play and the adults could visit. So, the next few posts are dedicated to our festivities last week. I hope you enjoy!

On Tuesday, July 3rd, we went to Jolley's Ranch up Hobble Creek Canyon in Springville to do our 3rd annual afternoon in the park and Home Run Derby (sorry, no pics of that this year... oops!).

Here's a better picture of my poor beat up child after he pulled a kitchen chair over on his face. See how swollen he was? It was so sad! Now, a week later, he's almost 100% healed, just still a greenish-yellow tint of a bruise under his right eye. Also, in this picture you can see how he had his second bottom tooth on it's way in. Teething and bruised, double whammy! Thank goodness for Tylenol !!

I tried to get pics of most everyone who was there (I missed myself and a couple of the little ones). Clockwise from the top left: Steve talking with T and Charlie, stud-muffin Ryan, gorgeous Mical, and Grandma Jill walking in front of Maddi, Trent, and Caden with a very tiny Kanyon in the far background by the bridge over the creek.

Clockwise from top left: Trent found a snake and freaked everyone out. We're pretty sure it wasn't poisonous. Ha! Still freaky. ... Grandma Jill getting in some cuddle time with Charlie, who thoroughly enjoys chewing on keys. Meghan taking a photo of Cohen (picture of a picture being taken, how fun! I can't wait to see her amazing pics.) And lastly, Charlie's adorable shoes. I mean, for real. Look at those things!

Overall, it was a beautiful afternoon and evening. The weather was dry and perfect, getting a little chilly as the sun went down. We enjoyed sandwiches and good company. I love this tradition!!

Not pictured: Myself (I was behind the camera), Grandpa Russell (he was at home, sick with the flu, yuck!), Troy (had other plans), Scarlett and Kelan (probably running around or playing on the playground), Callie and Cole (also running and playing). 

Also, I'd like to add the beautiful pictures that Meghan took of Charlie, just so I can have them here in my "journal", so-to-speak:

Sweetest boy. 

Life As My Phone Sees It 6/21/12 - 7/5/12

I've got lots of fun photos to show you this time. Life is good!

6/22 - 'Atta Boy Charlie! Steal Daddy's remote while he's sleeping! (Side note - it's pretty hard to get the remote from him, so Charlie definitely has the right idea!! Haha)

6/22 - Just an artistic shot of the moon from our apartments. Sometimes I go walking outside after Charlie is in bed so I can enjoy dusk, which is by far one of the best times of day in the summer!

6/23 - Got tagged in a "What are you doing right now?" post, and I had just finished cleaning my apartment (gotta love when I actually get in a cleaning streak!). I really love the feeling of a clean place, even if it does only last 10 minutes with my cute little drool bucket crawling around!

6/28 - Charlie got stuck on the frame of the chair. He wasn't too happy about it, but after lots of trying and fussing/whining, he finally figured out how to get his legs OVER the pesky bar! (These stupid chairs are going to be the death of me...)

6/28 - Later that day, we went up to Heidi's to go to a nearby splash pad with friends! Charlie and Emma are thoroughly enjoying their animal crackers!

6/30 - We enjoyed a family date out to the bowling alley! It had been so long since we had been bowling that we both had TERRIBLE scores (read between 60 to 85 points per game! ouch!), but we still had a fun time and I enjoyed that awesome one-cheek soreness and limp the next day! Woo hoo! The second picture is a shot of my favorite summer hairstyle this season: loose waves done with the straightening iron.

7/1 - Traveled up to Elk Ridge to celebrate Troy's birthday! Nephews Kanyon and Caden made that awesome Lego creation for Troy. What is it, you ask? Why, it's Troy's name made out of Legos! See? Now you can see it! :)

7/1 - Later that night, we got home late, and I got tagged in another "What are you doing right now?" post... so I posted this picture. We were trying to wrangle a very tired and cranky boy into his PJs so he could go to bed!! He only cries if he's really tired or hungry. Sounds a lot like me! Haha ;)

7/3 - Pictures of our pre-4th of July celebrations at a beautiful park up Hobble Creek Canyon. We all thoroughly enjoy this relatively new family tradition. We eat snacks, the kids play on the playground, and the guys enjoy a competitive round of home run derby! :) In the picture below you can see a mark on the bridge of Charlie's nose. It was caused by one of our kitchen chairs (THIS is why those chairs will be the death of me!). Charlie pulls himself to standing on the kitchen chairs, and this particular time he somehow pulled one down on top of him as he fell over backwards. Double whammy! He was SO upset, and we had to give him Tylenol. Stupid kitchen chairs... they are so light that they easily topple over. Blah. Well anyway, he pulled the chair over on him literally 20 minutes before we had to leave. Now he has a nice little bruise and swollen area on his nose and under his right eye.

7/4 - Happy 4th of July! I'll post a lot of details about the holiday in a different post, but here are my Instagram pics from the day: Balloons, Barbecue, Fireworks! (Feel free to click on them to see them larger)

7/5 - We're not sure if it's because he partied too hard yesterday, got in bed too late last night, is teething, or just caught a bit of the bug going around, but little man had a fever today and was soo sleepy, lethargic, and sad. I felt so bad for him. Well, a good dose of Tylenol and a nice, long afternoon nap seemed to help a ton! Broke his fever and helped him get back to normal. It's so sad to see your baby feeling sick, but it's SO sweet to have him want to cuddle and sleep on me. I soaked in that benefit to the max today! (Normally he won't slow down enough to even get a hug in without him pushing away... so it's Mommy Bliss to get cuddle time with her little man).

Hoping he's still feeling good tomorrow for his first trip to the zoo!! :)

These Are a Few of My Favorite Things

Just a couple videos to hopefully make your Monday a little brighter! Some of Charlie's favorite things include playing at the pool...

And playing with cords and door stoppers...

Seriously, why do I even bother with actual baby toys?! ;)

8 is Great!

Yes! It's true! Can you believe it!? Charlie turned 8 months old today! Wow.... that's 2/3 of a year. And it's blowing my mind how quickly it's going, how much he is growing, and what new things he just seems to learn every single day! I am seriously in love with that little man, and even though he doesn't speak words, I feel like I totally understand him. That's probably the neatest thing in the world. Whether it's "Hi Mom!" or "This is fun" or "Ouch, that hurt!" or "I'm huuuungry!" or "I am so SO SOOOOO tired!!", I hear it all. It's so sweet. :)

Now that my whole heart has just mushed all over the keyboard, please enjoy the monthly pictures!!

As usual, here is the comparison. Is the bear shrinking or the boy growing? ;)

A couple other gems from today's photoshoot... hahaha (proof that it's not always exactly easy to take these pictures every month!):

Some stats about Charlie at 8 Months:

• Size 3 diapers
• Wears size 6 and 6-9 and 6-12 month clothes (but mostly the bigger sizes)
• Still loves all solid foods. We tried meat this month and he didn't like ham by itself. At all! But he was okay with chicken and will tolerate meat when mixed with other foods like veggies or grains.
• Introduced solid solids this month - foods like the baby puffs, graham crackers, ritz crackers, cooked noodles, and cheerios. He LOVES eating these foods because he feels like a big boy. And he's developed an excellent pincer grip because of it.
• Drinks apple juice from a sippy cup with help. Doesn't really like drinking water very much.
• Drinks about 6 or so ounces of milk (breast milk mixed with formula) 4 times a day, with solid food eating sessions twice a day.
• Since last month (he had just learned to sit on his own and was sort of trying to crawl), he has learned to crawl very well, from room to room, stand up and pull up on EVERYTHING, and walk along things like the sofa. It's crazy how quickly he's learning to move now!
• Loves cords, anything with a screen (computer, phone, TV), and anything with buttons (remote, radio, DVD player). 
• Probably falls down/over at least 5 times a day. <Sigh>
• His language consists of spitting, hissing, grunting, and "oooing". Sometimes giggling. Oh, and crying :)
• Loves it when his daddy comes home from work. He lights up like a Christmas tree :)
• Has become my little shadow around the house... he follows me around and likes to "help" with laundry, dishes, etc. But he HATES the vacuum cleaner. He loses it every time I vacuum without having him in the other room with the doors closed. Haha!
• Loves to be outside and explore grass, be at the pool, touch leaves and flowers, etc.
• Fascinated by other kids (and even adults!). Whenever he's around them he'll just stare and observe, and he definitely makes a lot of friends :)
• Just cut his first tooth! (See the picture below). He's been a relatively good teether, which I'm grateful for. Only a few extra tears, a little tylenol, and sleeping more (going to bed earlier)

I finally was able to get a picture of his first tooth coming in! This task has proved to be nearly impossible because he sticks his tongue out and it covers his gums whenever I try to open his mouth to look in. Silly boy!

I have a lot of fun videos to share, but this post has taken too long to create. So, next time expect to see some footage of Charlie enjoying life!

Father's Day Weekend

Our Father's Day weekend this year was packed with fun, friends, and family! On Friday and Saturday, I put together a video for my Dad (Bebop to Charlie) for Father's Day with a picture slideshow and video. You can see the full video here, but here's a couple of my favorite shots:

We're sad that we live so far away from my parents, but thank heavens for technology (like Skype and videos) where they can get a little glimpse of him without being here.

Later on Saturday, like I said before, we all met up with Chris and her boyfriend Mike at Shoga (sushi!) for lunch. It was soo tasty! And I have to mention that it was Charlie's first time sitting in a highchair at a restaurant. I was probably more excited than a normal person would be. We then went home and Charlie got a great nap before we headed over to dinner at La Jolla Groves in the Riverwoods (second time in a highchair - that's twice in one day!). It was so fun to see my Aunt Kelly and Uncle Jim, as well as my brother Mike:

 And after dinner, we all got to watch Mike's band, the Hucksters, do their thing:

Charlie LOVES his Uncle Mike! And he showed it by wearing his "My Uncle Rocks" t-shirt! Woo hoo!

We got home late that night and crashed from our long, fun Saturday.

On Sunday, we went to church. Charlie sported this awesome Hawaiian-style shirt that Kelly & Jim purchased for him. It was SO awesome, and fit great! We call it the Uncle "Jim shirt" because Jim always sports these fancy Hawaiian shirts (see dinner picture above for an example!).

After church we drove down to Elk Ridge to have Father's Day dinner with T's parents. We had a ton of fun hanging out, eating, and playing (although I forgot to get pictures whoops!). Charlie loves spending time with Grandma and Grandpa Shipp! Overall, it was a fabulous weekend!

Happy Father's Day to everyone, especially my wonderful husband who has turned out to be an even more wonderful father!! <3

The Dirty Dash

On June 2nd, 2012 I had the opportunity to participate in my first (and hopefully not last!) Dirty Dash up in Midway, UT at Soldier Hollow (golf course / ski resort). It was fun, it was hard, and it was MUDDY! I got to run it with my friend Jana and her sister Kelley. Trevor and Charlie came up to watch the fun!

Please enjoy the muddy pictures!! :D

I had to hold Charlie away from me so he didn't get covered in mud too. You can tell he was "over it" pretty quickly! "Uhhhh Mom.... can I get down now!?"

 Messy Mama's!! Yeah!!

Our awesome homemade t-shirts! Mine said "Chargin' for Charlie". Jana's said "Cruising for Crew" (one of her sons) and Kelley's said "Leaping for Luke" (Jana's other little boy).

Whenever I started to lose steam, I reminded myself what my t-shirt said and I really would push harder. That and I was running with two amazing ladies who have run half marathons before! Yikes! It's nice to be pushed, though. It was also nice that at each of the obstacles there were small lines so you got to stop and catch your breath! :) That's MY kind of race!!

I plan on doing it again in September! Who's with me!?!?

Life As My Phone Sees It 5/31/12 - 6/20/12

Well, once again it seems I'm behind on blogging! Between Charlie becoming mobile and helping my husband with his job part time, while also finding time to have some fun and run all of my errands, I seem to have neglected my poor blog. :(

6/4: Charlie with some of his new toys, and a "large item barricade" behind him to help keep him out of the kitchen now that he's a crawler!
6/7: Right after learning to crawl, he started pulling himself up to standing! WHAT?! Slow down, little bug!

6/11: My 7 1/2 month old is obsessed with cords. No matter where we are, he always bee-lines to the nearest cord and starts to play with it. Gah! Maybe we have a future electrician/engineer on our hands! ;)

6/15: This little boy LOVES when his Daddy is home! <3

6/16: We all went to lunch at Shoga with my best friend Chris and her boyfriend Mike. It was SO much fun, and I miss her a lot now that she lives so far away in California :(

6/16: Later that Saturday, we all met up with my Aunt Kelly and Uncle Jim at the Riverwoods for dinner at La Jolla Groves. My brother, Mike, was also in town playing in the Battle of the Bands with his band, The Hucksters. The next two pictures are of him playing the bass guitar with his band!

6/16: It was Charlie's first concert!! He had fun, and for the most part, it wasn't too loud for him!

6/17: Happy Father's Day! Let's just all pretend that Charlie didn't blink, mmmk? ;)

6/18: I got tagged in a "What you're doing right now" post. This is what I posted, along with the caption "Enjoying this cute smile and trying to get a picture of his bottom right tooth that's working on cutting its way through his gums!! He wasn't cooperating very well...". Yes, he's cutting his first tooth! And he's being such a good sport about it :D

Hope you enjoyed! More posts to come, hopefully sooner than later!!