Park City 5th Anniversary Trip

We decided to celebrate the big #5 in style! We finally got it together and planned a trip away for a weekend to celebrate. We left Charlie at home with my in-laws for a couple days and ran away to Park City to focus on our relationship and to celebrate our marriage. It was absolutely wonderful and we couldn't believe how much-needed it was. Trev also kept asking why we didn't do stuff like this more often (especially before we had a child to look after!).

Anyway, it was great and now I'll tell you about all the fabulous things we did so you can be jealous! Haha :)
We left home Friday evening around 6pm and headed around the mountain to our destination. Along the way, we took a detour up Millcreek Canyon to eat at a nice mountain restaurant appropriately named Log Haven. We filled ourselves with savory steak, grilled veggies, and bread until we couldn't breathe; we talked, we laughed, and we just relaxed. I'm pretty sure that's what heaven will be like. Not to mention it was super-affordable thanks to the $100 gift cards our realtor sent to us as a thank-you gift for using him to buy our house! Sa-weet!

We rolled into Park City around 9:30pm and checked into our house. It was huge! I'm pretty sure we only used maybe 1/3 of the space. The house is a rental owned by a friend of my family back in Raleigh. For our wedding (5 years ago) their gift to us was for one free stay at their Park City cabin house whenever we wanted. Thank goodness we finally got around to using it. It was gorgeous and perfect for our weekend getaway.

You may notice there are no pictures yet. That's because we were seriously enjoying ourselves so much that I didn't even care to take time to snap photos. ;)

The next morning, we didn't sleep in. *Gasp!* I know... who doesn't sleep in on vacation? Okay, well, it was sleeping in for Trev but not for me. We got up to go play a round of golf at the Lake Course at Wasatch in Midway. Beforehand we enjoyed breakfast at a nice cafe in town, where I proceeded to spill an entire glass of ice water all over my pants. That definitely qualifies as one of those "graceful" Alex moments. <Sigh>

Anyway, we got to the course and played nine holes. I was freezing at first (due to the wind and wet pants), but quickly warmed up as I got playing, the sun came out, and my pants finally dried out too. Whew. Check out the gorgeous views (and my hunk of a husband):

And our scores for the day! Trev played a perfect round of bogey golf. I noticed I tend to play at an average of twice par (for example, if it's par 3, I'll probably shoot 6 hahahaha). But, despite some pretty bad golf, I did have a few victories! I hit my irons pretty well on a couple occasions, had a few good drives (including one that made it OVER a pond *woop woop!*), and generally just had a fabulous time and didn't get frustrated.

After golf, we drove back to the house and cleaned up for the rest of our day. Next stop: the Tanger Outlets. Trevor knew he was badly in need of a new wardrobe and was prepared to spend some money. We shopped for hours and got pretty much everything he will need! Can I just say how much FUN it is to go shopping with your husband? I had a blast playing the "mom" role in the dressing room... getting the clothes ready to put on, hanging them back up, and sorting into "yes", "no", and "maybe" piles. It's also pretty awesome to see your husband in nice, new clothes. Wait, what's that? What about me? Yep. I got a couple little gems also! You didn't actually think I'd go shopping at the outlets and buy nothing for myself did you? ;)

Our next stop was Main Street in Park City. We grabbed an early, quick dinner at a place called the Main Street Deli. Mmmm cheeseburger and fries. Vacations are for eating really GOOD (and bad-for-you) foods, right!?!

Our final stop for the day was a new adventure for both Trev and me! We got to create a painting! There's a new place in town called The Paint Mixer where you go and everyone paints the same picture with guidance from the instructor. There's also a bar there, so people can "let loose". We didn't participate, of course, but it was pretty entertaining to watch and listen to all the people around us in very high spirits. :)

Here's how our paintings started out... pretty boring huh?

But with a lot of fun, hard work and a little goofing off we made progress on our masterpieces!

Here are our finished, signed products! It was such a blast! Although I did feel a little rushed for time. That's probably the perfectionist in me coming out and wanting time to make everything look just right. :)

And here's the whole group. Fun to see all the different interpretations, huh? By the way, the instructor (in the red apron) and the guy with the crazy one with the heart on it (on the right) had both had quite a few drinks... if you couldn't tell ;)

I was really glad that we decided to go and do something new. I'd recommend it to anyone going to Park City, and the price isn't too bad either, especially because you get to take an original painting home with you!

That night, we were both SO exhausted. So much so that we didn't even have the energy to enjoy the hot tub at the house. Boo! Maybe next time! That's what you get for having an action-packed, fun day!

The next day, Sunday, we grabbed a quick breakfast and made our way to church with the Park City Ward at 9am. It was testimony meeting and one lady got up to speak and I thought she looked familiar. It turns out she is Mary N. Cook and was the former 1st counselor in the General Young Women's Presidency... so I've probably seen her speak in General Conference. Small world, huh?

After church, we decided to spend the rest of the afternoon perusing Main Street again. We window shopped, looked at art, gift shops, and whatever else we could find. We finished up with a yummy lunch at a place called "The Eating Establishment" (yes... that's actually its name) with more burgers, fries, and a BLT. Once again feeling very stuffed and satisfied, we made our way back home.

By the time we got there, we were very ready to see this cute little face:

And who wouldn't be?

18 Month Old Charlie

The day has come! My little boy is officially 18 months old. I'm not sure why, but I feel like this is a huge milestone for kids. Maybe it's because I feel like it's the age they are officially not a "baby" anymore and have  entered into the realm of true "toddlerhood". Maybe it's because he can go to nursery, his first class at church, so I don't have to wrestle/entertain him for three straight hours on Sundays. Maybe it's because he's got the hang of walking and running and is on the cusp of talking! I'm not sure what it is, but I'm loving this can't-sit-still, babble-all-day, get-into-everything stage.

You can't tell much in this picture, but I feel like he has really been growing like a weed the last few months! More hair, bigger hands and feet, getting taller and stronger! And cuter. How does he possibly keep getting cuter? I am so blessed to be his mom!

Here are some fun things about Charlie at 18 months:

• Wears size 12-18 month (just about grown out of those), 18 month, and 18-24 month clothes. Size 4 or 5 shoes.
• Has 8 teeth (5 on top, 3 on bottom) and is currently working on cutting in one more on top, and we're expecting a bottom one soon-ish so he can be even. :) This includes 2 molars on top.
• Because of his great chompers, he can eat basically anything now and WILL eat just about anything if you let him. So glad he's not a picky boy, although recently he has been deciding that he doesn't like a few things and will use his tongue to push it back out of his mouth. It seems to be a texture thing, and on occasion he won't like the taste of something.
• Drinks whole milk twice a day still (one sippy cup full in mid-morning, and a comforting bottle at night!)
• Great sleeper still. Goes to bed around 8pm and wakes up around 7:30am or so. He LOVES to be in his crib. He'll sometimes fake being tired so we'll let him go "nigh nigh" and he'll just stay up and play and babble in his crib until he passes out. Haha.
• His favorite hobby is to gather, pick up, and sort a variety of toys and objects... basically whatever he can get his hands on. He likes to try to pick up as many different things in his hands as he can and will get mad if he can't grab something else because his hands are too full.
• He LOVES to read. We will ask him to go get a book and he'll disappear into the other room and come back with a book of his choice. And sometimes even without having to be ask, he grabs a book and brings it up to me and puts it on me and says "uhh?" and looks at me with those cute eyes, and let's be honest, I can't resist. Even if I'm really busy, I'll read him that book. Even if I've read that book a bajillion times, I'll read that book. He's just that sweet.
• Points to pictures in books. I'll ask him, "Charlie, where's the moon?" and he'll point to it, or "Where's Curious George?" and he'll point. He gets it right a lot, but often he just points to the biggest, most obvious object. So I try to make it hard and then when he gets it wrong, I get to teach him, which is one of my favorite things to do. He also likes to repetitively point at books like he's "counting" the things on the page. Silly little copycat.
• Knows two hand signs! "More" and "All done". These two signs have saved our lives. No more screaming at mealtime when he wants more. Now he knows to quietly sign it and he'll get more. Amazing. Also, whenever we're done with anything (food, TV, toys, etc) and I have to take it away from him, I just tell him "all done" and do the sign. He'll do it with me and then he just understands that we're all done now and it prevents him from getting mad or crying. Genius, I tell you. 
• Waves hello and goodbye
• Gives hugs and kisses freely
• Folds his arms when we tell him it's time to pray
• Claps his hands and stomps his feet when we sing the "Roll Your Hands" primary song. And then, of course, folds and rocks his arms back and forth. It's really really cute.
• Personality-wise, he's still just the sweetest boy. He doesn't throw or hit or spit. He's just so nice and gentle and happy. Like a typical boy, he loves to be outside and loves to play in dirt. He also is incapable of sitting still and doesn't really pay attention when I take him places like story time, but that's okay... we'll just get some practice with structured learning/play time. I just feel so happy and so lucky and so blessed to be his mother. 

Words Charlie knows:

• "Uck" or "Guck" for duck, stuck, truck, and car
• "Ba Ba" for bottle/milk
• "Uh oh" for uh oh ;)
• "Ma Ma" when asked to say it (I'm not sure if he knows that means Mommy yet)
• "Ahh uhh" (high to low pitch) for All Done
• "Aaayyyy" for hey/hi
• "Aa mmen" for amen (at the end of a prayer)
• "Bah" for ball, when asked to repeat it
• "Moon" for moon :)
• Makes animal noises when we ask him what the animal says: 
• "Mooooo" for cow
• "Bawh bah baw" (really high pitched and cute) for kitty and puppy dog - He loves to talk to all animals in this cute high-pitched voice, like he knows he's bigger than they are. 
• And he has been known to attempt a "cock a doodle doo" for a rooster
• And here's the list of words I know he understands but doesn't say:
• Charlie
• Book
• Blanket
• Prayer
• Daddy
• Mommy
• Let's go/Ready to go?
• Night night
• Bath
• Food/hungry/eat/snack/cracker
• Drink
• Toys/play

I am sure there are a thousand little things that he does that I'm forgetting because he's learning so much and changing every day. It's so rewarding to watch him learn and grow. Finally, here's a picture of my sweet 18 month old toddler posing and looking oh-so dapper:

We love you, Charlie!

Life As My Phone Sees It 3/25/13 - 4/15/13

Wed 3/27 - When Kimma and Bebop are in town, Kimma lets Charlie play in the dirt! And she'll even play with him. And then he found the mud and things got kinda messy ;) Kimma is much more fun that I am!!
Fri 3/29 - There was a gorgeous sunset off my back porch:

Sat 3/30 - Trev and I were able to make it to our niece Scarlett's first gymnastics competition. She totally killed it and got second place in her age group (best at her gym!) and got a gold medal to show for it! :)

Sat 4/6 - I seem to always wait until Saturday night to go grocery shopping, when the grocery store is so busy (even though it doesn't look like it in this pic). At least I have a pretty cute face to keep me company while I shop! :)
Tues 4/9 - Charlie and I went to visit our friends Tori and her sons Jack and Alex in Lehi. I knew Tori from our Wymount days and it was so much fun to catch up! We let our "three little monkeys" sit on the counter and eat snacks. Thankfully none fell off and bumped their head, haha!

\

Tues 4/9 - Later that night, I went to my first Relief Society activity in my new ward. It was so much fun! We learned about meal planning, gardening, and cake decorating. Here's a picture of my (second) first attempt at an icing rose! I think it turned out pretty good, but I'm definitely going to need more practice.
Fri 4/19 - Trev had a colonoscopy on Friday at about midday and my wonderful friend Jana watched Charlie for us. He had such a blast with his friends Luke and Crew. Just another picture of "three little monkeys" eating snacks! I'm sensing a trend here... I have lots of friends who have 2 kids and all kids love to eat snacks! :D

Thurs 4/11 (a little out of order) - I have the cutest little helper in the world. You got to start 'em young and hopefully they'll be good little helpers for years to come!

Fri 4/12 (again) - Charlie thought it was preeeeetttty hilarious to walk around in my shoes. He was squealing, laughing, and then hiccuping because he was having so much fun. He has always picked up and played with my shoes, but never had the idea to put them on his feet until I showed him, and he just LOVED it, and would get really mad if one of the shoes fell off his foot. Haha
Mon 4/15 - Ahh!! Utah spring strikes again! I woke up to snow this morning! Please, warm spring, come back now!!

Easter with my Family

Easter celebrations this year have been such fun! Back in late February, my parents had planned on flying into town right after we moved into our new house. Due to some business related reasons, they had to postpone their trip for a month and it just so happened that they re-booked their trip for this Easter weekend! It was so much fun to do all of our traditions together for the first time since 2005 (before I left for college)! We were also glad that my brother Mike and his sweet, fun girlfriend AshLynn could make it down from Rexburg for the weekend.

One tradition we have is that we all must take a picture after church in our Easter attire. Here's the whole gang:

And here's one of my family (minus AshLynn... she wanted us to make sure we'd snap one without her since she's not related).

Of course, another Easter tradition is that the Easter Bunny comes and leaves us baskets full of candy and eggs (and a little hopping bunny toy for Charlie!):

As with years past, we also continued the tradition of making the bunny cake:

Here's an excellent depiction of my concentration face. It takes a lot of focus to ice a very soft cake without getting crumbs mixed all in the frosting:

AshLynn tried her hand at frosting the bow tie!

Mike even got involved with decorating the cake. He added spots to the bow tie using a frosting bag. He looked so natural in the kitchen, we all agreed we could see him on Cupcake Wars as one of those hipster cupcake bakers. :)

Mike's handywork:

Master Baker Mike and his signature frosting "M":

And now a look at the finished cake!
Another tradition we started this year was letting Charlie hunt for Easter eggs.

I accidentally spaced the neighborhood egg hunt on the Thursday before Easter, so to make up for it, we let Charlie practice finding and picking up eggs in my front yard. He had a blast! Until he discovered the mulch... then he got distracted and wasn't too interested in the eggs anymore. (Boys WILL be boys!)

We ran out of time to dye eggs, although we did hard boil the eggs and had a dyeing kit ready. Maybe we'll do it tomorrow... just a day late, right?

We also had a traditional Easter lunch/dinner of ham, sweet potatoes, rolls, and asparagus (instead of green beans). It was absolutely delicious. Holiday comfort food at its finest! :)

Finally, we all had the opportunity this morning of going to church together as a family. Our Bishop gave a two-hour lesson for the last two hours of church that walked us through the scriptures leading up to the Savior's crucifixion and then his death and resurrection. The Bishop provided maps and wonderful videos to help immerse us in the story and the spirit of the sacrifice that Jesus Christ made for all mankind. More-so than candy, eggs, bunnies, and cakes, I am grateful for the TRUE meaning of Easter. I am so humbled and so grateful that Jesus Christ suffered for all of our sins and infirmities, and then died so I may live again with Him someday. I am in awe that he rose again on the third day so that I, too, may be resurrected. I am so grateful that, because of all of His sacrifices, I can repent of my sins and shortcomings and strive daily to become more like He wants me to be. I know HE LIVES. I know he loves me and my family and every other person on this earth. How grateful I am for the knowledge of His gospel and for the peace it brings to my life each day.

Happy Easter <3

Trent's Mission Call

Last Friday, March 22nd, we got news that Trev's youngest brother Trent got his mission call in the mail and was wanting the whole family there to open it that night! We were SO excited for him, so we traveled south to Elk Ridge that evening.

Here are my boys before the big reveal! You can see Charlie's new handsome haircut and also get a glimpse of my husband's amazing smile. Just one of the many reasons why I married him :)

Here's Trent, finally getting to open his mission call after waiting all day!

Reading that he has been called to serve as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints to the Mexico, Veracruz mission (Spanish speaking)! He is so excited and told us that he had wanted to speak another language and go foreign! We are so proud of him! He reports to the MTC on August 7th, 2013! Congratulations, Trent!

Click here to see the full YouTube video of him opening his call! And click here to find out more about what Trent will be up to for the next couple years as a missionary spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ!

Charlie Randoms from March

Just a couple photos off my Canon camera from the last couple of weeks.
Can I just say that nap time is divine? Charlie looks like an angel when he sleeps, and I get a much-needed midday break :) I'm always very happy to see his cheery face after he's woken up!

And these other three are a few I snapped at the park on March 11th. I really can't believe how big he is getting. Maybe I need to just take a step out of the land of denial and deal with it ;) I just love his little squinty grimace/smile face (hahaha) and his sweet little hands:

I think it's safe to say he had fun that day. :)

I'm just so grateful for my husband and his fabulous job, which affords me the opportunity to stay home with this sweet boy every day. I live a very blessed life.

Life As My Phone Sees It 2/12/13 - 3/24/13

Holy cow. I have totally neglected my poor blog. Now I have to play catch up. Guess we'll start with my phone photos! :)

2/12 and 2/13 - The basement in our new house was finally complete, with about one week to go until our closing date!!! And little boy was waiting patiently for the pizza to finish baking so he could stuff his face with his favorite food!

2/14 - Valentine's Day! Charlie had his first ever experience with balloons. He thought they were hilarious when he'd shake the strings and they'd all bounce off each other! I also made some divine sugar cookie bites. Yum!!

2/17 - Charlie woke up with a fever on Sunday and we had to take him to the doctor since he was feeling so bad. Turns out one of his ears got an ear infection again, after he had been off the antibiotics for only 10 days. I was so bummed. And Charlie just didn't feel good and slept on and off in the living room all day. Fortunately, the new antibiotics seemed to take care of everything and he's been feeling pretty good ever since. FINALLY. Our family was SO sick in Jan/Feb. It's nice to finally catch a break.

2/20 and 2/21 - Weds & Thurs - Here's a look at our crowded living room in the process of me trying to pack. We were supposed to close on our house on Tuesday the 19th, but didn't end up closing until the evening of the 21st due to a delay in approval for holding money in escrow from the seller. It was craziness, but fortunately everything worked out and we ended up closing at the library at UVU.
And then there's Charlie, still feeling sick from earlier that week, but smiling through it with his cute morning face! :)

2/23 - Saturday! Moving day! We let Charlie drink one more bottle in what was once his very first bedroom.

2/23 - Still moving day. We had a huge snowstorm that day. Right after we got everything packed into the truck, it started to snow hard. I'm pretty sure we got really unlucky and the worst of it happened while we made the drive over to the new house. During the drive I almost slid into a car in front of me that was stopped at a light, one member of our moving crew (Shawn) did a donut in the middle of the road, and no one could stop coming down the hill toward our house. Fortunately, it leveled out right at our house and everybody made it in one piece, but it was horrible. About 15 minutes later, the snowplows came and scraped and threw dirt on the roads, making them much better. Just our luck. :) Well anyway, it made for a spectacular winter view out our back window!
And the second photo is Charlie taking his first bath in our new house! Loving a brand new, clean tub!

2/28 - Thursday - Just modeling and taking pictures. I have much better light in my new house, and I liked my outfit that day! :)

3/2 and 3/3 (Sat & Sun) - After being in our house for about a week, Charlie developed these rashes on his cheeks, poor thing. I too had some pretty rough, dry skin on my lower face. I'm really not sure where it came from, but my guess was an extra dry environment with hard water. Or perhaps it was a type of virus. Who knows? Fortunately, with a lot of moisture, both our faces healed up within a few days!
And then I sneaked a picture in church to document our first day at our new ward: Eagle's Gate 2nd Ward!

3/5 - Tuesday - Charlie ate breakfast at the table off a big boy plate. Bananas, peaches, and cheerios, yum!
He also learned to shoot hoops that day with the hoop we bought off our city's online yard sale page on Facebook! He got so excited every time he made a basket and would come over and give me a hug and sit on my lap after every shot! So cute!

3/8 (Fri) and 3/11 (Mon) - Our living room is slowly coming along! I've since gotten the back installed on the entertainment center (what a fiasco... just ask me about it if you care haha). I do want new sofas eventually, and some pics on the wall, and a coffee table, but it'll do for now ;)
The second picture is just one more example of my little boy learning new things and growing up too fast: He goes down the slide by himself these days! And he just LOVES it and giggles every time.

3/12 - Tuesday - We went with our friends (Heidi and her daughters Kate, and Emma) to Airborne Trampoline Arena in south Salt Lake to let the kids get their wiggles out since it was still a little chilly outside. Charlie absolutely loved it! While he was tentative about the trampolines at first, he had no reservations jumping into the foam pits and crawling around! He also liked to watch the bigger kids playing dodgeball, and if I could read his thoughts, I bet he wished he could play too :)

3/14 - Thursday - It was a gorgeous day! And I was excited to find out that they were starting work on our yard! Hooray! (By the next Thursday all the sod was laid and today, the 25th, they are finishing up the bushes and landscaping in the back yard!) I really LOVE having a yard. The green lawn makes our brown house POP!
It was so beautiful that day that we were able to sit out on the back porch in our new deck chairs (thank you, Walmart) and enjoy a nice spring evening. Charlie even decided to read a book ;)

3/19 - Tuesday - Some of Charlie's new spring/summer clothing arrived in the mail. I seriously love buying new clothes for my toddler. I die inside a little when he walks around looking like a "mini man". Haha
Tuesdays are one of the days that Trev gets home from work a little earlier, so he took Charlie outside to play in the dirt (they had laid our topsoil but hadn't done the sod yet). Charlie LOVES to play in dirt (just like his Daddy!). By the time he was done, he had dirt everywhere and wherever he walked there was a cloud of dust following him, so we nicknamed him "Pig-Pen" (from Charlie Brown) for the day. So cute :)

Well, not much more has happened in the last week. We've just been enjoying our new house and March Madness on TV! Charlie got a haircut last Wednesday and looks so cute again! We got some baby hair gel and we've been working on styling his hair a bit. :) Oh the joys of having a boy!?

Now we're looking forward to my parents getting into town tomorrow afternoon and having a week chocked full of fun! :D
Whew! Updating is very hard work!