Life As My Phone Sees It 1/17/13 - 2/11/13

Monday 1/21 - Charlie has started giving us hugs and kisses when asked. It's the sweetest thing ever. Here he is giving his Daddy a hug before he had to go back to work. Charlie and I both enjoy when he can come home for lunchtime!
Tuesday 1/22 - Playing in his overalls! First time wearing this fabulous consignment shop find! I'm in love!!

Wednesday 1/23 - I took a nighttime drive out to our new house to see the progress of the basement while the boys stayed at home. I was so excited to see the walls and trim in place! Can't wait to move in soon!
Monday 1/28 - Whew... can you tell we had been very sick around here? This stash of drugs doesn't even include Charlie's antibiotics. I can thankfully say today that our 3+ week sickness has finally subsided!!

1/31 - Thursday (both photos): Pardon Charlie's squinty/tired eyes... we walked home from a friend's house that day because, despite the snow on the ground, it was a gorgeous day! I mostly wanted to take a picture of Charlie's CUTE footprints he made in the snow while walking. I literally just about died from cuteness. The second photo was posted in honor of "Throwback Thursday", a growing Instagram tradition. This is a photo of my beautiful Grandmother holding me as a wee babe. She hasn't been with us on this earth for a while now, but I'm sure she'd just eat Charlie right up if she could!! :)

Friday 2/1 - Juicing broccoli, collard greens, and cabbage? Basically my husband is a crazy person. Yuck!!
Saturday 2/2 - Took another trip out to the new house, although this time it was with Trev and Charlie too! We saw that they had put the hardware onto the kitchen cabinets and I am in LOVE with how it looks! I picked well! :) Also, every time we go to the house, Charlie is just so happy to run around and giggle. He is SO excited for our new place. Probably just as much as I am!!!

Friday 2/1 - (It's a little out of order, sorry) - Here's my boys watching The Office together. My, my I sure do have a wonderful view!!

Friday 2/8 - Three little monkeys sittin' on a couch! Such cute little friends. Charlie and I had a sleepover at the Kimball's house with Heidi and her two girls since our two husbands were on a business trip to Las Vegas for the weekend. It was so much fun to be spontaneous and have a sleepover!!

Saturday 2/9 - I took Charlie out to really play in the falling snow for the first time. Despite not having any gloves, he just loved it! He got brave and put his hands all the way in the snow, and then once he felt how cold it was he slowly pulled them back out, looked at them with a concerned look on his face, and tried to pull the leftover snow off. It was really cute. When I made him come back inside, he was really unhappy and cried until I let him stand up in the windowsill so he could at least watch the snow falling. I was surprised at how much fun he had!! :)

Monday 2/11 - My little beggar. This is my view pretty often when I'm sitting at the kitchen table. He always wants to do what I'm doing. Or eat what I'm eating. What a silly little blue-eyed cutie! I LOVE him. Have I mentioned that? 

Superbowl Sunday!

We had a grand time last Sunday watching the Superbowl with Trev's family! This year we went to his sister Meghan's house in Springville where we ate delicious food, had fun conversations, and the game was on the bigscreen with surround sound! The 49ers were playing the Ravens, and since Trev and his family are huge 49ers fans, the guys were all pretty interested in watching the game this year! The game started really poorly for the 49ers, but they rallied back in the second half and nearly won it, but ended up falling short at the very end. Oh well - at least they gave us a good game!

Pictured here is Troy, Russell, Jill with Cohen, Scarlett, and Meghan with Kelan:

I'm not sure what Emily (James' cute fiance) and Steve are doing in this picture, but it's pretty awesome because I caught Kanyon in mid-jump!

More of the same from above. This was right after little Cohen jumped down off the bar chair and hit his ear pretty hard. Poor thing couldn't breathe for a second he was crying so hard :(

Charlie spent most of his time whining and trying to climb up the stairs to the main floor. It was exhausting watching him and following him, so the three of us in our little family watched the game upstairs for a little while by ourselves because he seemed to enjoy that better. Once he was past his grumpy stage around 7pm, he somehow got his second wind and became happy again to just play in the basement with his cousins. He was up until almost 10pm that night and didn't fuss too much about it!

The second picture above is so sweet. Little Scarlett playing piano with her brother Kelan trying to push the keys :)

Just one last shot to show you the great view we all had of the game. It was a fun party. Anytime we get to spend time with family is always so much fun :)

Thanks, Meg, for hosting and making some really rockin' chicken and veggie kabobs!! Let's do it again next year!!

Charlie at 15 Months

Even though I don't plan on doing this monthly, I definitely want to do periodic updates (maybe every 3 months or so) to document the growth and changes my little boy is going through these days!

His most recent stats at about 15 months were 30" tall and 20.5 lbs.

Poor thing has been really sick lately. He has had a cold which developed into a cough which developed into RSV and a double ear infection for a couple weeks now. In fact, on his 15 month "birthday" was the first day he ever threw up. We were in the car on the way back from helping our friends, the Bucks, move to Lehi. I started to try to feed him dinner and that combined with all the mucus and phlegm in his throat caused him to throw up for the first time. It was SO sad :( This has also been his first bout of ear infections too. Poor, poor baby. Here's hoping we'll be better soon! He's such a trooper and still tries to be happy even though he feels so bad.

Here are a couple things about Charlie these days:

• Has learned to say the word "duck" pretty clearly. He has no idea what it means, but he really likes to say it, and most of the time it almost sounds like "guck". But he makes a perfect "k" sound! I'm really impressed! :) 
• Also says "Heeeeeeeeeyyy" (in a tone as if you are confused/offended haha), uh oh, baba, mama, and "Cawww" every time he sees his little eagle stuffed animal we named Rosco. 
• Size 4 diapers, size 5 at night time. 
• Size 12-18 month clothes, barely fits in size 12mo anymore, and is working his way into size 18mo.
• Understands when I ask him where his drink is, or where his stuffed animals are. He'll look around to try to find them. 
• Favorite things are books, stuffed animals (especially his eagle Rosco), pulling my hair dryer and curling irons out of the drawer, throwing things onto the tile to hear them make fun noises, all things jewelry, eating any food (but his favorties are sweet things), going places (he gets really excited and squeals every time we walk into a store or the gym or something haha), being in his crib, and being with his Daddy. 
• Is an excellent walker. He can basically run (walks very fast) and knows how to walk backwards if he's holding onto a push toy and pulling it backwards. 
• I still rock him with a bottle every night before bed. I can't let go of the fact that he's not going to be a little baby much longer. 
• Takes one nap per day, usually about 2 hours, from around 12 noon until 2pm. 
• Two bottles per day, 6 oz each, one the morning around 10:30am (after breakfast) and one at bedtime (around 7:30pm).
• Has developed pretty frustrating constipation issues, which I think stem from drinking whole cow's milk and the amount of solid foods he eats now. So, we give him about a third of a capful of Miralax in his nighttime bottle to help him out. I also give him half soy milk and half cow's milk to help too. 
• He is such a sweet boy. He doesn't hit or throw things much. Loves to laugh and smile and play. He's become more cuddly, too, and will give you a hug or a kiss if you ask him to. Also loves to give hugs to his stuffed animals. 
• He's working on learning how to wave hello. He will do it if you wave his hand for him first to help him remember how to do it. 
• We also are learning some basic sign language to help with his language development skills :) He doesn't do any of the signs yet, but I think he understands a couple.
• His favorite game to play is to run away when we say "I'm gonna get you!!!" and start chasing him. He loves it!!

Life As My Phone Sees It 1/1/13 - 1/16/13

1/1/13 (well, actually 12/31/12 too)... New Year's Eve! This was the extent of our party... a couple glasses of Martinelli's and a kiss shared at midnight! Then, off to bed ;)

1/2/13 - This is seriously how the weather has looked for the last couple of weeks, without much of a reprieve. Talk about never wanting to leave the house. Ever. :( So, we drown our sorrows in a delicious, wholesome grilled chicken and fresh fruit salad with a bit of poppyseed dressing! Yum!!

1/2/13 - I normally haven't given Charlie utensils to use to feed himself. I guess I just like to avoid messes. But, the other day, I decided to see if he could use a spoon to feed himself yogurt. After showing him how to do it one time, he caught on and was an instant yogurt-eating-with-a-spoon pro! If I don't watch him closely, it will quickly become a mess... but I guess that's the price you pay to let your child learn and explore! ;)

1/3/13 - Thursday - I took Charlie to Cookie Cutters in Lehi, UT to get his first big-kid haircut, as you've seen. This was my Instagram documentation of the results. :)

1/7/13 - It was a lazy Monday for Charlie while I tried to get some work done. He had a lot of fun walking and playing on the sofa. He's such a wiggle worm that it's hard to capture a non-blurry picture of him! Haha.

1/10/13 - They finished framing the basement of our new house the day before, so I drove over to the house with my realtor to check out the job they did and make sure all was going well. I'm so excited!! :) More info to come on this later!

1/11/13 - Friday - It was the last day of the second week of my gym challenge! I hadn't missed a day and have been thoroughly enjoying it! Although this day I could tell I was getting sick (again...) with a cold, so I was taking it easy. Sure enough, I still have a cold (5 days later... it's almost gone!). Missed Monday of this week due to feeling crummy, and only stayed for 15 mins on Tuesday because Charlie was having a meltdown in the daycare, but I plan on making it up big time on Saturday!! :) Trying to keep going strong despite freezing cold weather, a cold, and a child who just recently decided to be clingy. I WILL DO THIS!! :)

Second picture was of Charlie's bath time on 1/13/13. Bath time is still one of his very favorite activities :)

Recap of 2012

I love looking back on my year and making a bullet list of the important things I remember from that year! Sadly, I just realized I never did it for 2011 (the biggest year of my life so far, since that's when Charlie was born!!). Oh well, at least I'll hop back on the tradition train and do it for 2012 :)

• Rang in the new year with 2-month-old Charlie at a couple of my parents' friends' homes in Raleigh! We were at the Berriman's house and exploded paper poppers at midnight!
• Discovered the wonders of Instagram.
• Finally finished decorating Charlie's nursery.
• My Mom and Dad came to town in mid-February and were able to watch Charlie so Trev and I could go on our Valentine's Day date to Park City. It was awesome!
• Trev started at a new full-time job in February! Yay!
• Charlie and I visited many parks and duck ponds all year long, and we spent a lot of time at story time at the Provo library with friends.
• I went through the very traumatic experience of having my baby fall out of my arms onto the concrete and watching him recover. Fortunately, no permanent damage done. :/
• The Easter bunny came to visit our home for the first time! And I made a bunny cake, as usual!
• Celebrated our 4 year wedding anniversary!
• Bought a pass to Seven Peaks water park where Charlie and I frequented over the summer.
• I ran the Dirty Dash, twice! Once in June, once in September!
• Enjoyed the Olympics on TV, after finally purchasing a cable subscription and cancelling Netflix.
• Had the biggest, most fun 4th-of-July WEEK full of family festivities and a bit of illness ;) Some firsts for Charlie included going to the zoo and seeing fireworks (which didn't scare him!!)
• I turned 25 years old!
• In August, I finally stopped pumping breast milk and it was the most freeing experience of my life!
• Went to Jackson Hole with the Kimball family! Trev and Dave ran their first relay race from Utah up to Jackson Hole. They survived!! Then, we relaxed, played games, took pictures, and ate at Bar J!
• My car got backed into on the way to Jackson Hole, in the middle of nowhere Wyoming. :(
• Once home, I drove a Dodge Charger for a couple weeks while my car was getting fixed! 
• Bought a brand new Canon Rebel T3i DSLR camera and I love it!
• Went to NC for two weeks! (Trev just stayed for the first week and went home to work). This was Charlie's first beach experience!
• Participated in two monthly photo-of-the-day challenges on Instagram!
• My good friend Jenny Buck gave birth to her second child, sweet baby girl Amy.
• Found out my friend Meghan Ballard was pregnant with her second baby! And even though he was technically born in 2013 (Jan 1st!!), we're still glad that little boy Nolan is here!
• I was called as the Junior Primary music leader, and it's been a blast! Trevor served in the scouts this year and spent many a sleepless night in a tent on camp-outs! :)
• Spent many hours of my Fall months searching, touring, and trying to find a house to live in! Submitted 3 offers, and finally got one accepted!
• Charlie turned 1 year old and had a Curious George birthday party!
• We had Halloween in Springville dressed as a little dragon, a knight, and a princess :) Gotta love family themes!
• Attended just one wedding reception - my friend Megan Whitmore (McKarns, now) got married!
• I voted for Romney. Alas, President Obama was re-elected. 
• Trev turned 28!
• Thanksgiving at the church in Heber City! Then, lots of fabulous Black Friday shopping, including my first (and, so far, only) visit to the new Outlets at Traverse Mountain! Gotta go back! :)
• Trev was on steroids quite a bit this year for his Ulcerative Colitis. We are contemplating trying a new medicine regimen if this last attempt doesn't get him into a good remission.
• After over 3 years, I finally quit my job as manager for Shy Property Management. It has been glorious. :)
• Spent way too much time waiting for the builder of our home to "get a permit" to start work on the basement of our new house. 
• Got family photos taken and sent out our 3rd annual family Christmas card.
• Santa Claus visited us for the first time and left wonderful gifts for Charlie! Christmas was very relaxing not having to travel this year. 
• Watched our lion's share of TV shows and movies this year, most notable TV shows include the Bachelor, Bachelorette, Walking Dead, Downton Abbey seasons 1&2, Gossip Girl, Friday Night Lights, Modern Family. Notable movies include Hunger Games, Dark Knight Rises, Skyfall, and Les Miserables... can't remember any others... well... I remember Breaking Dawn, Part II, but it's really not a notable movie ;) Honestly, I don't even think we got a babysitter other than my mother-in-law until close to Charlie's first birthday. Ever since then, we've been taking advantage :)
• Charlie learned how to flip over, sit up, crawl, babble, feed himself, play, laugh, pull up, and walk! I think I'm going to be stunned how much he will learn in this coming year!
• New Year's Eve was the lowest-key you could possibly imagine... waiting for the ball to drop on TV, then promptly going to sleep. In fact, Trev had already gone to bed, so I woke him up 5 minutes before midnight to celebrate with me with some Martinelli's. Wow. We are awesome!! ;)

It was a good year. Things to look forward to in 2013? Moving into our new home, having some sort of fun vacation(s), and maybe consider adding to our family! I guess we will see what time may bring! <3

Charlie's First Haircut

Last Thursday, January 3rd, I finally took Charlie in for his first haircut. He really was in dire need of one, but I had become one of those silly moms who didn't want to let those baby curls go! But, it really was time as his hair had become, well, a mullet. Whoops. Thanks to advice from a handful of Facebook friends, I decided to take him to a kids-only hair salon called Cookie Cutters in Lehi, UT.

We got there and waited just a little bit, and then Charlie got to "pick" his own chair. We picked a nice, blue car for him to play in while he got his haircut! He was such a happy boy:

Soon, the hair cutting process began. Look at those sweet locks coming off! Sniffle. :( It's time for him to grow up. He did ok at first, just not really sure what the buzzing thing was on his head...

...but he soon began to get pretty wary and concerned...

...until he just couldn't hold it together anymore and just lost it, poor thing.

He really tried to be brave, but every time he'd look at me or think about what was going on...

...he'd just lose it again. It's so sad, but I couldn't help but laugh a little and tell him that he was just fine.

His pacifier came to the rescue and definitely helped to calm him down a little (sweet tears in his eyes!)...

...but he was just really ready for it all to just be over with. He didn't like that someone was holding his head still and tugging on his hair.

Things perked up a little once it was all over and he could play with the steering wheel on his really cool blue car and the nice lady gave him a sucker. He LOOOOVED the sucker, but I soon realized that little 14-month-old's don't understand the concept of "swallow what you've sucked off", so it was like a waterfall of pink, sticky drool pouring out of his mouth. The first time with the lollipop was pretty short-lived. Maybe next time I'll plan for it and just strip him down to nothing and let him go at it... right before bath time! ;)

And, last but not least, here are the before and after pictures!! Not too much of a difference in the front, but thank heavens the "party in the back" got cleaned up!

I can't believe how much of a little BOY he looked after his haircut! So handsome and grown up. I could actually see his EARS and it seemed like they stuck out a little farther, haha. I guess this is just one more step in the process of my baby becoming a toddler. Sigh. I sure do love love LOVE him, though. <3

Gym Results - Week 1

Well my first week of going to the gym every week day has ended! I even went on Saturday! It's so weird... once you start going, it feels so good you can't help but just keep on going!

Some results/observations from this week of working out include:

1. Charlie likes playing with the other kids at the gym while I work out, which is great! 
2. By day 3, I was so sore I could barely move, but it was all gone by day 4! 
3. I like zumba classes. They are crazy, and I've never felt more uncoordinated in my life, but I think I'll keep going back! It's like dancing yourself skinny! :D
4. I'm not so sure about cycling class. There was no happiness there, and I'm not looking to burn 600-900 calories in 45 minutes, cross-train, or lose a lot of weight, soooo I may not be doing that again. Yikes. I don't have the self-motivation for that. The teacher even said I looked pale and wanted to make sure I wasn't going to pass out. Double yikes.
5. I may or may not have lost ~1 pound. Haha!
6. My bum already looks better (a little more "lift" back there) and I've remembered that I have muscles in my tummy! Things are looking up! :)
7. My happiness and energy levels have skyrocketed upward, and I think this is the greatest benefit I've been getting from the gym so far! I'm more productive and it's all really, really good for my life right now.

Anyway, for all you people who didn't believe that I'd actually go to the gym every day (*cough*EVERYONE*cough*)... well... take THAT! I did it for a week, and I plan on continuing to do it because, believe it or not, I am enjoying it! And that's despite the fact that the weather only got COLDER as the week went on. I traveled to the gym in single-digit and sub-zero temperatures! Boo-yah! :P