when daddy was away

I haven't been very good about posting chronologically, but here is an old video from when B was in Oregon shadowing some awesome doctors. I'm going to try to get him to post some of his experiences because he told me some good stories.

My lovely mother came to stay with me and Livy loo, and while she was here

we were working on teaching baby girl how to clap and wave.

And a few other shots from that week:

I do wish my hair wasn't so ratty in this pic because I love it when she sits with me like this.

Momma took us out to CPK and Colse kept Livy entertained.

She loves her cousins.

Thank you Momma! We are so grateful for the help you gave us!

Olivia had so much fun with you and she still misses you!

And so do I.

bed head

Do you ever have mornings when you wake up and feel like this?

Now you know how I felt every. day. this week.

Hoping that my entire summer isn't like this.

Okay I had to throw another one in because she really is happy in the mornings.

The above picture is just hilarious to me. And I think she looks like a peacock.

a story about shoes

I'm just gonna be honest here. I don't really like crocs. In fact, I would even go so far as to say I think they're ugly. Sorry if you have some, I still like you, they're just not for me.

With that said, when B told me he wanted to buy baby some I said no. We all walked down to the store and tried them on her, and I changed my mind. I think she can make anything look cute.

Plus we got them from a little place called the dollar store, and a girl can never have too many shoes.

Olivia meets grass

I introduced Olivia to grass yesterday. Here were the results:

Not so sure about it {notice her arms}

She likes it {although she still hasn't moved her arms}

still liking it

resting her arms

changing her mind

"this stuff is too itchy for me mom, what were you thinkin?"

Finally, a gushy post for Laura

My friend Laura sent out a challenge, and I wasn't about to back down. This is a story I hold very near and dear to my heart. Its not too mushy gushy, but instead simple and sweet. I think I might like this memory more than our engagement story, which is why I chose it (sorry, I know that wasn't what you asked for but hopefully this is good too). I will be writing more chapters to the story from time to time, because I've never posted these things since I started this blog after we were already married. Thanks for giving me a reason to start!

Here is just one chapter in our love story:

It was a day just like any other. The girl went to class. Tried to listen intently, but her eyes were too heavy to keep open. They started to close, and then popped back open, in fear that the teacher would see her sleeping.

She tried again, her efforts failed.

She sat up straighter and wondered how she was going to make it through. Then she remembered something that made her smile. She shoved her hand into her bag and dug until her hand felt that smooth familiar surface. She pulled out her cell phone to text the source of her content smile. To her surprise, that source had already texted her.

She smiled more.

As she was walking home, she noticed how beautiful the mountains were, how lovely the fresh cut grass smelled, and how nice the warm sun felt shining on her skin. She was thankful for this day. Things just seemed so much more wonderful than ever before.

That night she couldn't wait to see him, the boy, the source of her smiles. It seemed he was the source of a lot of her giggles too. He made her happy. He made her laugh. He made her feel pretty and important and special. Sometimes she got jealous when he gave his attention to someone else. She wanted it all to herself. She felt lucky when she was with him and when he would look at her from across the room she wished that no one else was there.

The night was over, and it was time for the boy to go home. She felt sad. She wished he never had to leave, and that they could be together forever. They stood facing each other. He took her hands and pulled her close. They kissed, and he wrapped her arms around his neck. She laid her head on his shoulder and they were just hugging. She could feel his heart beating. It was beating faster and faster. They were just hugging. His heart was thumping. They kept hugging. Her heart started to beat faster because she could feel that he was nervous. This excited her. She thought/hoped she knew why his heart was beating so. She hugged him tighter, to give him encouragement. He hugged her tight, his heart still pounding.

Finally the words escaped his mouth, "I love you".

She smiled the kind of smile that penetrated all the way down to her toes. But he couldn't see her face, so she whispered, "I love you too".

She was happy.

Thanks for making me take a stroll down memory lane, and record this- the first time we told each other we loved each other. And I have to add that I was the first girl Brady ever said I love you to. Not sure what I did to deserve him.

8 months

I almost started crying just now when I realized that my tiny baby is 8 months old! She is so much fun these days. I can just sit for hours and watch her discover the world. Every single little face she makes is adorable to me. I decided to make a video of her because I couldn't choose just a few photos, and like I said EVERY face is precious to me {yes even the 'closed eyes' ones}.

A quick list of Livy {or evie as her cousins call her} at 8 months

-still loves to just stare at her hands while moving them and opening and closing her fingers

-can spot microscopic items on the floor and 'scratch' them with her finger

-likes to eat paper

-learning to wave and clap! and dance :)

-officially mobile. crawls all over. to my surprise I love it!

-can pull herself up

-loves to stand {supported} more than sit (but that's not really anything new)

-favorite playpen=bathroom sink

-loves to get into mommy's jewelry {and eat it}

-likes carrots and pretty much anything orange

-tolerates green beans/peas {barely}

-LOVES apples {all of this is mashed food btw}

In honor of all her big milestones {crawling, pulling up, clapping, waving, dancing} I chose the song Big Jumps by Emiliana Torrini

*also, the ipod she's chewing on in the video is already broken, hence us letting her chew on it.

Happy 8 months Evie girl!

dainty mustache

Somehow Olivia's green peas ended up in a small dainty mustache above her little lips.

Just one reason why I love being a mother...

A few nights ago, we changed her dipe and dressed Olivia in her jammies. I went to into her room to put some toys away for the night and when I came back around the corner I saw this:

I was confused because I knew B wouldn't have taken her out of her clothes without a good reason so I asked him if she had thrown up or something. He said no while turing around to see her naked, sitting and playing with her jams. I just love that innocent little face.

It was such a cute/funny sight! I has to snap some pics to remember what a big girl she is! She crawls all over the place now, and apparently knows how to undress herself.

This baby girl sure knows how to make us smile!

Happy Mother's Day

This is an old photo of my pretty Mom.
She always makes everything better. Still.
I want to be like her in every way.
And she's still this pretty.
I love her very much.

I'm so lucky to actually have her on her way to be with me this very day!

And I'm so lucky to have a wonderful Mother-in-law who is also beautiful inside and out!

Blessings

Brady and I were reminded of our many blessings, and how our Heavenly Father loves us and knows our needs with a personal experience this week after coming home from our vacation.

Because of that experience I felt the need to express my grattitude for all of the ways we've been blessed. I think I've been overlooking and forgetting to express thanks for these things too often and for too long, and blaming it on the fact that I'm just too busy.

The fact of the matter is, everyone is busy and I should never make excuses for forgetting to count my blessings. I let all the small problems get in the way and lost focus. My mind so easily would jump to all of the bad things happening to us and I was constantly thinking "WHY us?" I'm talking, like, really small things too.

This is a lesson I've learned and re-learned and here I am learning it again and it probably won't be the last time. The second I let the negative things in my life overpower my mind, I can no longer see the blessings in it, and I myself become negative {someone who I don't want to be}. Then something undeniably wonderful happens and I am reminded of how truly beautiful my life is, both the good and the bad.

I am thankful for small daily blessings- a compliment from a stranger, a smile, the mountains in the sunset.

I am thankful for my incredibly supportive husband

-his willingness to be Mr. Mom

-how sweet he is to our daughter

-the fact that I've never been nervous to leave him alone with the baby

-his willingness to get out of bed in the early morning to kill a spider for me

-not being mad when I woke him up for no reason because it ended up not being a spider

-slowing down his career plans for me to reach my goals

-never ever ever {ever} complaining

-his even temper

-how he handles stressful situations

-his patience with me

I am thankful for my beautiful girl

-her smiles/giggles

-when she lays her head on my shoulder

-her big blue eyes and how she is the spitting image of her father

-when she sticks her bum in the air

-at night when she puts herself to sleep

-her little pointer finger

I am thankful for our busy life

-how we BOTH have to give a little

-how well we've learned to work together

-realizing each other's strengths

-realizing each other's weaknesses

-for times when we've been able to comfort eachother

-when he says thank you and it takes me completely off guard because I feel he is the one doing all the work

Inspired

Take 8 and a 1/2 minutes, watch this and be inspired. And if you've been living under a rock and have never visited her blog remedy that situation and go now.

Rollin

Over here we're just rollin in the money.

Okay now you must know how poor we really are since we felt the need to take a picture of us with several 100 dollar bills. This obviously isn't a frequent occurence over here.

We sold Dora (our Ford Explorer) this week and thought it was funny that the dude who bought it paid in cash. Very sad to see her go, but happy to have some extra cash. Now I can buy all those new clothes and shoes I've been drooling over, and I can get Olivia some designer clothes too! And Brady can buy 15 ipads with the leftover cash and make an ipad WALL like he's been dreaming of doing.

PSYeeeeeeeeeeCH!
That says psych if you couldn't tell {remember several years ago when that was cool}

Unfortunately there will be many other places that money will be flying off too before I can go shopping with it. A girl can dream though.

Vacation is over

SO sad that my break from school is over, but I guess the sooner I start again the sooner I finish.

We traveled to TX for a few short days and it was heaven. I planned nothing which made for the most relaxing time.

We did:

hang out by the pool a few times, went running, visited with family we don't get to see often, caught up our favorite shows, finished a book and started a new one, created a few small crafts, and traveled down to Austin to visit more family and have some dental work done (now hopefully I'll stop having nightmares about my teeth deteriorating and falling out). Of course the trip was interspersed with special TX treats like Blue Bell ice cream.

My favorite part of this trip was that we BOTH got to sleep in several times!!!!! A luxury I thought I would never know again. My parents woke up with Olivia so that we could both catch a few more Z's.

This may not sound like fun to anyone else, but to us it was magical. That little list up there doubles as a list of all the things we haven't gotten to do this past semester/year. Such is the life of 2 full time students who are also parents of a cute baby. Even though I basically don't get a summer, this semester will be so much better in the aspect that Brady is DONE with school. Of course there is always more work to be done. In between taking care of baby O and working, he'll be focusing on rounding out and submitting his applications to med school (this month). Then the waiting game is on yet again.

We did not:

study (partly due to the fact that I forgot ALL my study materials- wish me luck on my HUGE end of year 1 exam on Tues, especially since I picked up a nasty cold at the end of the trip)

*Brady did not officially graduate because we want to wait until he is accepted to med school in case they require him to take another class. He has 1 credit left to complete next fall :) And I will be making him walk and get the cap and gown even if he does have several more years of school ahead.