Friday, September 12, 2014

::a decade::

Nate and I celebrated our TENTH wedding anniversary on August 6th!
 We have had highs and lows, grown and stretched, and sacrificed
for each other.  We debate, we daydream, and we drive each other
crazy. We also laugh A LOT. 
A decade with this guy has been the best adventure ever!!

We always had big plans for this anniversary...we wanted to be in Italy.
Instead we got a sweet addition to our family, Mr. Elliott!
We are still planning on Europe in a few years but for now a couple's massage
and sushi was our celebration topped off with cute kisses at bedtime by both kids.
We watched our wedding video and snuggled on the couch before I passed
out around 8:30pm.  

I posted on Instagram and Facebook 10 favorite memories I have had with Nate over the course
of our 10 years of marriage...and I realized I had pictures to go with almost all those 
memories!  I also realized I posted 11 memories. Sleep deprivation messes with basic math skills.

one: on our honeymoon in mexico when we
found the biggest sand crabs ever!

two: sandwich saturdays on the front lawn
of our first basement apartment in sugarhouse

three: seeing the city lights of new york from
our harbor cruise

four: eating two cheesesteaks in one day while
sightseeing in philly

five: hot chocolate and apple fritters
in san francisco

six: holding hands as we snorkeled across
a deep spooky kauai trench while looking for turtles

seven: crazy bingo at lava hot springs

eight: dancing to etta james sing our wedding
song live at red butte gardens

nine: the time nate accidentally put dish soap
in our dishwasher and i almost went into labor
from laughing so hard

ten: getting sneaky vip seats at the postal
service concert

eleven: having nate by my side as our 
sweet babies came into this world

Sunday, August 31, 2014

Friday, August 29, 2014

a baby in a bowtie

8.10.14
Elliott's Blessing

Nate did a wonderful job blessing Elliott in our 
church ward several weeks ago.  Family and friends were there
and we had a great time chatting and hanging out eating
lunch at our house after.  But this little man in the
bow tie definitely stole the show!

A case of Benjamin Button going on!

Outtakes:

We live for these grins!

We borrowed his little suit from a friend and my mom and
I made the bow tie from one of Nate's ties. My mom bought
him some white shoes and he was ready!

The fam:


Love these two guys:



Saturday, August 23, 2014

Pioneer Day

...24th of July...

Our annual Pioneer Day tradition is to head up to Kamas 
for the kid's parade and festivities!  




Mabel wanted her face painted....out of all the options
the had displayed on a board she chose a snake!


We visited my Grandpa's grave...
sometimes it's still feels so weird that he is gone. 

Elliott loved being help by his Great Grandma Naylor!

Tuesday, August 19, 2014

2nd (and 3rd) Quarter Commentary

Here are Mabel's quotes from the jar over the past several months:


3.10.14 When she tells you a secret instead of whispering in your ear she puts her ear to yours and then she whispers.



4.06.14  Looking at herself after going potty.
              Mabel: "Mom, we are girls and boys have penises."
              Me: "Yes, that's right."
              Mabel: (singing) "Penis, peanut butter and jelly!"

4.07.14 Mabel was speaking in weird jibberish (which she never does!):
             Me: What are you saying?
             Mabel: I am speaking Portuguese!!
             (of course Nate loved it when I told him this!)

4.08.14  I asked her to pick up her toys and she said, "I can't because of my belly."
              (which is what I say all the time because of my large pregnant belly!)


4.11.14 One day she built me an "elephant bum" tower
and thought it was the funniest thing.


4.15.14  I was telling her a bedtime story about a horse named Buttercup.
              Me: Buttercup ran across the field!
              Mabel: You mean galloped?

4.16.14  She was walking up the stairs following Kelsey and said, "Kelsey stop! I'm begging you!"

4.20.14  Singing a made up song, "I love the holy spirit!"

4.20.14  Mabel got a harmonica in her Easter basket.  She couldn't find it the next morning and she asked, "Where is my moroni?"  Then later she asked again, "Where is my moronica?"

4.21.14 She waved to a random lady in Costco then turned to me and said, "Mom, that is being friendly!"

4.22.14  In the car we saw a guy riding a motorcycle without a helmet...
              Mabel: Oh no! He doesn't have a helmet on! We should give him a ticket.
She needs a nap EVERY day but that doesn't happen
anymore.  We still try and most days it works but some days it
doesn't. On those days I often wish I drank alcohol.
4.22.14  Getting her pajamas on:
              Mabel: I want to wear my monkey jammies.
              Nate: They are downstairs in the wash.
              Mabel: That is ridiculous!

4.23.14 She was so grumpy today and I said, "It looks like we have a grump on our hands!"  She looked down at her hands turning them over.

4.25.14 Nana asked Mabel to do something and she said that she couldn't because she didn't have enough pixie dust!

She loves visiting Aunt Kelsey at "Noodle Land."


4.28.14 I gave Mabel a peppermint and she said she was putting the mint in her pocket for safekeeping.

5.01.14  Nate and Mabel were playing and saying, "I miss my mommy" back and forth.  Mabel was pretending she was the mama and Nate said, "Mommy, I miss Mabel."  Mabel paused and with a stern voice said, "I'm not the mama and I'm not going to take care of you!"

Nana sent her a dollhouse for her birthday and she got to
open it a few weeks early!

5.14.14  I was eating some watermelon and she asked, "May I have a bite your majesty?"

5.18.14  I told her to take our tithing envelope up to Nate who was seated on the stand in church and she said, "Sure, I'll take this to Daddy and I can zig zap through all the people."

Before brother came along we had time to paint
our nails and put Jamberry's on. 

5.20.14 "Daddy, how does Heavenly Father love me and you and mama AND the abominable snowman?"

5.26.14 Mabel was opening Kelsey's plastic owl egg from Easter and was pretty disappointed when there was nothing in it. She said, "There's no candy or ham!"

6.01.14 Mabel saw Charlie barf on the carpet and said, "It looks like seahorse!"

6.03.14 Mabel kept asking Kelsey to scoot over and when Kelsey asked why Mabel said, "Because you want to!"
Back in the days when Elliott used to sleep in his carseat
we would drive to Salt Lake.  We stopped to visit Elisha at
work and she let Mabel help stock the produce.  For
a little girl who loves to pretend she is "the worker" this
was a dream come true!


6.04.14 Singing the hush little baby song and she said, "Daddy's gonna do nothing for you."

6.06.14 Mabel was singing a random song about out on the deep blue sea...then all of a sudden she paused and starting singing the frozen song, "I never see you anymore, come out the door, it's like you've gone awaaaaay."

The day she skinned both her knees and refused to walk for
 the rest of the day.  It was the worst. It was as if her legs had been
chopped off.  Now that scraping her knees is a pretty regular occurrence
she has gotten a lot better with pain management.

6.09.14  I said, "Elliott is such a cute baby!" and she said, "Like a little apple dumplin'!"

6.14.14  I told Mabel that Nana, Grandpa, and Uncle Jacob would be here around 3ish and she said, "But mama, I'm already 3! They gotta come!"



6.24.14 She came out of her room with glasses on and said, "I'm the parent."

6.28.14  She was sad that there were no food samples at Sam's Club and she said, "But I need samples for my body to grow!"

Uncle Jacob's girlfriend Alana got Mabel this Frozen
shirt when she was at Disneyland in Paris!

6.29.14  After asking penis questions when Nate was peeing:
              Nate: "It's probably not good to talk about penises all the time."
              Mabel: "Okay, let talk about vaginas."

7.01.14 When she's really mad she says, "FINE, I'M OUT!" and leaves the room.

I have loved seeing the evolution of the faces she draws.
Just recently they started having eyebrows. 
She loves pretending to call Uncle Jacob on this phone.


7.06.14  While playing doctor with me:
              Mabel: Okay, I have to give you a shot and it might hurt for a minute but don't cry because it's annoying.  Then you get a sticker and a treat.

She loves taking pictures with my phone and
it's fun scrolling through my photos at night seeing what
she chose to take pictures of.  Foot selfie below:

8.01.14 She calls watermelon "wallermelon."

8.09.14 We need to clean the window because of those printy hands.



8.15.14 I need to put your flippers on because my feet are cold. (my slippers)

Fun with friends...they both had to go potty and then
several minutes later I heard giggling like crazy.
Found them like this in Elliott's bathtub!


Monday, August 18, 2014

Backyard Brio Buds

A few weeks ago we had a bbq with the friends we made in our 
birth class with Mabel.  Several of them will be moving out of state
so we wanted to get together one last time! 

 Our group has sure added a lot of little people over the past few years...

and trying to get a picture where they are all looking is pretty much impossible!






Thanks to Kirstin and David for hosting in their lovely backyard! 
We sure love these friends and I always feel rejuvenated
after an evening talking and laughing!