new york, new york

In case you haven't heard the news, Tyler was hired as a summer intern at Johnson & Johnson, so we are officially moving to New York City for the summer! Hallelujah! This is the best news ever for three reasons... First, we have always dreamed of living in New York since we went there together when we were dating way back in 2007, and now we finally get to see that dream come true, even if it's just for a summer. But the second reason it is awesome is because if he does a great job this summer, this internship might turn into a job offer next spring when Tyler graduates. And then we can live in New York forever! But the third good thing to come of this is that Tyler gets to leave Calle for good, which will be a huge stress reliever. Who knows what we will do for money next fall when we get home, but who cares? I would rather have him work as a garbage man at this point. He has been stressing over this internship for MONTHS, so to have it all set in stone is so exciting for both of us! We are going to have the most amazing summer ever, seeing the awesome sights, shopping at whatever store in the world we want to because everything is in NYC, eating some incredible food and making as many memories as we can. New York City, here we come!

saron: seventeen months

Saron with a "Pretty" in the bath.

Saron is becoming such a girly girl. She always has to have a "Pretty" on at all times. A Pretty can be a necklace, a bracelet, a hair bow, sunglasses, a tutu... pretty much anything that is frilly or girly. I found some pink Converse hi-tops at a thrift store for her and she went nuts over them calling them pretty. Too bad for her daddy, who loves to buy her shoes in the boys section haha. It's kinda hard to see in the photo above, but she got a black eye this week and scraped up her face pretty bad, too. She is super active, always climbing, jumping and running everywhere and she has a lot of falls. Poor thing.

She has started this mommy phase this month where she doesn't want anyone but me. It used to be that I was chopped liver as soon as daddy came home from school, but lately I have to be in her sight at all times. I'm in Primary at church and Tyler has been trying to get her adjusted to nursery and all she does is sit on his lap and cry for mommy the whole time. I have no idea where this has come from because her whole entire life she has always been crazy friendly and would always let anyone hold her. She loved saying hi and talking to random strangers everywhere we went, but now everything is all about mommy. At first it was flattering and cute because she has never been this way before and it was nice to finally be recognized for everything I do for her. Let's face it, it was a little discouraging at times when I had been changing diapers, cooking meals and cleaning up after her all day but when she would see daddy she wouldn't even look at me anymore. But now I would gladly trade back! It's tough being the only one she wants because lately she can be a little unreasonable. Dramatic little tantrums and fake tears are regular occurrences around here now. But I must say that I do love those sneaky snuggles that I squeeze in every now and then when she is sad. She still smells so good and I love her warmth in my arms. So I guess I don't want the mommy phase to completely end... :)

My sister Mara hasn't been feeling well lately so she has been coming over a lot to hang out and have some company. Saron loves this because it means that her cousins are over all day. She absolutely adores Mara's kids and can say all of their names She calls Luke "Guke" and Annie is "Nannie" and Mabel is "MayMay." It is so adorable how excited she gets when they walk through the door. And when they leave she talks about them all night and will say "Bye bye Guke, bye bye Nannie, bye bye MayMay" over and over. I love it! She and Mabel are funny together. Whatever one has, the other has to have and they fight over toys a lot. And yet... they love to be together. Funny how that is.

She is also really into babies these days. She has a baby Lucy doll from Pottery Barn Kids that she sleeps with and she loves to hold her and rock her and sing songs to her. Sooooo freaking adorable. And when she sees a baby at church or the store she goes crazy! It's hilarious sometimes though because she will often call someone a baby who is older than her, and sometimes the kid gets offended... "Mommy, she is calling me a baby and I'm not a baby!!" That has happened to us a few times haha.

She also has a ridiculous sense of humor. The other day my mom and I were watching something on TV in the kitchen and Saron was playing with toys in there by herself. All the sudden she started shouting and we looked over and she was walking like Frankenstein with straight legs with a box over her head and shouting into the box to make it echo around her. We were dying laughing at how random it was and how much she loved it. Then once she saw how much it made us laugh she kept doing it and peeking out from under the box at us to make sure we were watching her and still laughing. She loves to be funny and make people laugh!

Lately she is trying so hard to be a big kid and it's pretty cute. But she is still a baby in lots of ways, as evident by the mommy phase. And I think it's hard for her to be stuck in the middle, which is probably why she is having some emotional breakdowns lately haha. But aside from those little issues, she is so much fun and so funny and lots of fun to be around. She is definitely my little sunshine!

I am a blog neglecter.

Wow. I have been seriously neglecting my poor blog. I don't know if you feel this way, too, but sometimes I get overwhelmed with all the amazingly cute blogs out there. And then I feel like my life is so simple and boring that I have nothing to write about. And I am the worst at taking pictures. Or else I take a bunch of pictures and never upload or edit them. I am basically sitting on about a hundred and fifty blog posts worth of photos that I just haven't done anything with. Maybe someday?

But then I take a step back and look at my life, and I really am happy. And we have lots of fun in the moments that we can. I guess I'm just living my life for reals instead of sitting behind a camera and looking at it through a lens and posting only the cutest pictures so everyone will think my life is more perfect than it really is. Is that bad of me to say? When I look at some of these adorable famous blogs, I go back and forth between feeling slightly jealous of their perfect life and wondering what their life is really like. Because if there is one thing that I have learned in my own life, it is that life is never perfect. We each have our personal trials and disappointments that we don't always want the rest of the world to know about.

This has been a challenging and rewarding school year for us. I say school year even though I am not in school anymore because my husband's school schedule seems to rule our life these days. Boy, I can't wait for him to graduate already. Living with my parents has been really interesting, too. My mom is a warrior and such an incredible example to me. She is so clean, so organized, so devoted to her family and will work until she drops dead from exhaustion at the end of the day. I've really learned a lot from her. Free rent is cool, but it seems like we have been having our rent's worth of problems each month with car issues, school fees and Saron's growing out of everything the minute we buy it. That girl's feet grow a size a month, I swear! But the best part about living here is the special bond that Saron has with my parents and with her cousins. When we lived in Provo I didn't make the drive up too often, but living with my mom means that we have visitors almost every day. Sometimes just for a minute, other times for most of the day. Saron loves her cousins so much and talks about them all day when they're not here. It's really cute. She mentions everyone by name and jabbers on about them in her adorable little language. She is such a people person. Even at this small age, it's so obvious how much relationships mean to her.

Tyler spent a week in New York this month with his class and the director of his program at school. He totally fell in love with the city and had such an amazing time. It got us both really excited to hopefully live there this summer. He got his portfolio and resume all ready and interviewed at a couple of places, so we'll see what happens. No matter what internship he gets I know we are going to have a total blast this summer! And it's fun to see Tyler so inspired. At home it's mostly just work work work, so for him to take a vacation and soak up all the creativity that NYC has to offer was really motivating for him. It's good for him to see the real world and to see what's really out there. He hasn't traveled much and has spent most of his college career either married to his job, or married to his family, so it's hard for him to take time for himself. I really believe in him and think he is a fantastic artist, and I love when he gets excited about new ideas. Living in New York would be so great for his creativity and for our little family. It would push our limits and get us out more, which would be good because we are kinda trapped in Cedar Hills a little bit because it's not really close to anything. And I'm sure we'll meet a lot of really fun people out there and make some cool friends! And hopefully it will turn into a real job so that next year when he graduates we can move to NYC for good!

I keep making goals to blog at least once a week, but never do it. Maybe this post will be the kick start that I need. It's a kinda long one with lots of information, but hey, I gotta write all this down sometime!

saron: sixteen months

Saron and her cousin Bronwyn, playing in my mom's kitchen

I am a terrible blogger. I wish it was because I was too busy to spend any time on the internet, but if you follow me on Pinterest, you know that is totally not true. The truth is, I hate uploading pictures because our camera is too fancy and i have to edit the pictures and make them all fancy and it is a day-long project that I never feel like doing. And a blog post without pictures is just lame.

These days Saron is a riot. Sometimes literally. She can tear up an un-baby-proofed room like a full on riot. And she can dish up riotous fits of giggles at a moments notice. She has a very strong personality, which is fun but hard sometimes. She is stubborn and fierce and funny and silly. She RUNS everywhere she goes. Seriously, always. She still loves playing peekaboo, but not the baby kind anymore. She will really try to surprise/scare you, and I do it back to her and she loves it. Sometimes I get her so good that she actually gets really startled and screams and then we both roll on the ground laughing. It's one of my favorite things these days! And lately she has gotten all girly on us, to Tyler's great dismay haha. She loves purses, hair bows, tutus and necklaces. She is always wearing a necklace and has this tiny little pink purse that she inherited from an older cousin and she loves to put things in it and carry it around on her arm. Pretty! Pretty! Pretty! She loves that word. We read a lot of books these days and she loves to turn the pages and pretend to read back to me. She loves animals (especially ones that make noises, like farm animals) and will go absolutely NUTS if she sees a dog. She loves dogs! And babies. She says about 15 or so words I think (maybe more, now that I am counting in my head...) but a lot of them are unintelligible to anyone but me and a lot of them sound the same, but mean different things. For instance, Boppers (the name the grandkids call my dad) and diaper are basically the same word for her, which is sometimes funny. She loves to wrestle on the ground with her daddy and loves to be chased. She is also starting to really understand right from wrong, but still does the wrong things (making sure that I see her do it) just to get a reaction from me. Boy am I learning patience these days. I swear half the stuff she does is to get a reaction from me, and sometimes it works, but I am learning to control myself and guide her softly and consistently. And then there are days that when Tyler gets home from school I have to shut myself in my room because I am so aggravated and frustrated. But I guess that's just part of being a mom, right? Every day I learn and grow along with Saron.

I love this stage because:

• she can actually communicate lots of things with me instead of just screaming in frustration
• her personality is really developed and I can really see who she is and see her humor
• she is independent in a lot of ways. She can feed herself, climb up and down the stairs, etc
• she is a total sponge and is absorbing so much information and saying new words all the time

Things I will miss:

• She has made this little "goya-goya-goya" noise when she sucks her thumb and is super tired since she was tiny, but she hardly ever does it anymore. It is the cutest little noise and I am really sad to see it go! My baby is a big girl now...
• She is all done with bottles and I actually really miss that quiet time before bed when we could just snuggle. She never ever ever snuggles with me anymore.

how to be alone

My sister in-law Tiffany shared this video with me and I just love it!

RIP Merlin 4/23/2000 - 1/2/2011

Our family dog and best friend Merlin died on Monday. It was very sad to see him go, but it was time. He was such a sweet dog and was always so patient with all the kids around, but he had developed cancer all over his body and was really having trouble walking and going up and down the stairs because of the pain and weakness. He was one of the calmest, sweetest and happiest dogs I have ever known and was perfectly designed for our family. My brother Roderick and brother  in-law Rich took him to the vet to have the procedure done and Rich stayed with him until the end. He said that it was very peaceful and he was very calm throughout it. Before they administer the sedative, they gave him an IV pain reliever and Rich said that he was immediately relieved of all his pain from the cancer in his body and he seemed very peaceful. I'm so glad that he stayed with him and I know that he is so much happier now that he is living pain-free! I have no doubt that he is a celestial soul and would make a perfect pet for some adoring angels.

Such a handsome boy!

RIP Merlin, you will be greatly missed.

Born Easter morning in the year 2000, died January 2, 2011, almost 12 years old.

Never much liked fetch, but loved to chase birds and rabbits.

Happiest in the mountain trails behind our house, running free without a leash.

Loved to pretend that he was running away, but he would always come back when he lost sight of you.

Always let the little ones tug on his ears and climb all over him without complaint.

Scratching him under his collar was his weak spot.

Ate just about everything under the sun without ever getting sick. He was the ultimate garbage disposal and floor sweeper. My dad called him a first-rate "Crumber" because he ate everyone's crumbs.

Never did learn to roll all the way over. Lazy dog!

Loved to be underfoot. Wherever his favorite people were, he was always nearby.

Always gave "hugs" when he saw people hugging. Unfortunately, his hugs usually knocked both people completely to the floor!

Nicknamed Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh because he was gray and lazy.

Excellent bark to scare away unwanted solicitors at the door. Scared the living daylights out of the deacons collecting fast offerings.

Never went through a chewing phase. He only had his special bear that we called "baby" and he never chewed up anything else of ours. Best dog ever, right?

130-pound mass of love. He was such a lover!

The goodbye hug in his last moments with our family

Thanksgiving 2011

I totally stole all of these photos from my sister Karyn's blog because I was lazy and didn't take a single photo this year... But here are a couple shots of the festivities. We stayed in Utah and had dinner with my family this year and are going to Bakersfield for Christmas (can't wait!) so it was pretty low key for us. My mom actually let everyone help a lot more this year than she usually does and made assignments for a lot of our traditional food, so we mostly made pies and the turkey at our house. Thanksgiving is such a fun relaxing weekend and I love spending time with my sisters and mom.

Here are all the girls Thanksgiving morning

This is a cornucopia made out of bread! For the tutorial click here.

This is an apple pie. We stamped the entire top crust with my pie crust cutters from Williams-Sonoma

This is Mara's pecan pie that we also decorated with my pie crust cutters. So cute, huh?

halloween 2011

This year was a fun Halloween. My parents' neighborhood has a really fun tradition where several houses sign up for special events at their house the night of Halloween. One house makes hundreds of caramel apples only for the parents of the trick-or-treaters, one house shows a movie projected on the wall of their garage (Hocus Pocus this year), one house does a big haunted house, there are donuts on a string, bobbing for apples and several other typical fall activities at other houses, too. It's really fun because you go to a few houses and trick-or-treat, then you stop and do a fun activity, then trick-or-treat some more. We went around with my sister Karyn and her three kids, so it was a lot of fun to see their reaction to everything. Here are a few of pictures of Saron and I. She was a lion and I was a lion tamer! Our costumes were really cute and all from thrift stores or borrowed. Now that's my kind of Halloween.

watch it.

Oh man, I am so behind on blogging. Sorry... I wish I could say that I have given up wasting time on the internet, but I have just gone from wasting time reading blogs to wasting time on Pinterest. Have you discovered Pinterest yet? It is a serious time-sucker, so only join if you have oodles of time to waste. Which I don't, but I still waste it anyway... But if you want to see the coolest video ever, check this one out!

saron: eleven months

Saron walks like a pro now. She does this little laugh when she gets excited where she wrinkles up her nose and breathes in and out of it super fast and it is ridiculously adorable. She is learning how to be mischievous and opening drawers, cabinets and trash can lids. Now that she is so good on her feet she can also stand on her tip toes and reach on top of tables. Sheesh we have had to hide everything haha. She has ten teeth, and two of her molars just popped through.

Saron loves:

• Emptying drawers and boxes. She loves to pull things out one at a time, look at it, taste it, throw it on the floor and grab the next thing.
• Trashing toilet paper rolls. She also loves getting in my tampon boxes and carrying them around with her. The bathroom is off-limits and she knows it. Whenever she sees that the door has feel left open, she runs over screaming with delight!
• Rough play on the floor, tickling, wrestling, etc. She loves getting tossed and thrown around.
• Trying new food. She'll eat anything! If she likes it she will scream for more. If she hates it she will put her hands in front of her face to hide. It's really cute.
• Boppers! That's what the grandkids call my dad. She is OBSESSED with him and thinks that everything he does is hilarious. In fact, he was out of town for a little bit and while I was upstairs doing something she wandered off. It got quiet so I was wondering what she was doing and I found her in my parents' closet snuggling up to one of my dad's shirts and sucking her thumb! The poor girl just really missed her Boppers!
• Naps. She is a great nap taker (finally). She goes down really easily and always sleeps well.
• Dogs. She plays with my grandma's dog and it is so hilarious! She tries to take his toys and they have serious tug-of-war fights. She also loves chasing him around wherever he goes. My parents' dog Merlin is too old to run around but she loves climbing all over him. He's such a good sport about it and totally lets her!
• Playing peek-a-boo and chase. Sometimes I can hardly feed her a meal because she is always playing peek-a-boo in between every single bite. And she loves to be chased now that she is faster and more steady on her feet. I crawl around on the ground and she runs away screaming and laughing.
• Taking food out of the pantry. She knows what the Cheerio's box looks like, so when she wants a snack, she just gets in the pantry, opens the box and takes a handful! It's pretty funny.

Saron hates:

• When she is getting into something bad and I take it away, like garbage, the crate of onions in the pantry or any other thing that she can destroy
• Being physically restrained in any way. She hates when I hold her hands to wash them, when I try to hold her still in church and when I wipe her face

saron: ten months

Saron is so fun right now! She is walking, talking and making her opinions known lots these days. She walks everywhere all the time. She always tries walking first before crawling somewhere and it's paid off! She takes lots of steps and is improving so much every day. The most I've counted is eight in a row, but she is so determined to walk that I think it'll happen really fast from here. She has some words now, too. She says mama, dada, dog, all done, hi, and bye bye. And she has the cutest little wave in the whole world! She LOVES to wave all the time. And I mean all the time. I will leave the room for thirty seconds and when I come back she always greets me with a huge grin and a huge wave. It's adorable. Tyler is gone a lot at school and work, so she loves the time that she gets to see him in the evenings and wants nothing to do with me anymore, which is fine by me haha.

Saron loves:

• Sweets. Just yesterday my mom was making cookies and gave her a little lick of the dough and as soon as she finished it she started yelling for more. She gets insane when you give her chocolate or anything sweet! It is hilarious. She definitely gets it from her dad, he is a serious sugar fiend!
• Sucking her thumb. When she is really hungry and I make her a bottle, at the first sight of the bottle her thumb goes instantly in her mouth. Also, whenever she touches anything silky because she sleeps with a little silky blanket at night. The other day she wandered off and I found her in my parents' closet snuggling with one of my dad's soft shirts and sucking her thumb. So cute, huh? :)
• Cheerios. The cereal boxes are kept low in the pantry and today she figured out how to open the cereal box and just helped herself to the Cheerios. She was pretty darn proud of herself.
• Begging for food. Anytime I am eating anything (and I mean anything!) she always wants to try a bite of what I am eating. She even likes spicy salsas and onions and tomatoes. She'll eat anything.

Saron hates:

• The baby gate. Sometimes while I am cleaning I will put a baby gate up in her doorway so I can see her while she plays in her room but she can't get into the cleaning stuff. The problem is that once I put the gate up she doesn't want to play anymore! She just stands at the gate and yells at me until I pay her some attention. Even if I sneak in and do it, the second she notices that gate up she gets so offended haha.
• Shoes. She refuses to walk or crawl when she is wearing shoes. It's like kryptonite for her! Her ankles roll and she can't walk flat when she has shoes on. Any suggestions?
• Her carseat. She just wants to run around and the carseat is a major hindrance to her activities!
• Getting her face and nose wiped. She will scream like she is being tortured to death when I try to clean her nose! Tyler refuses to do it because he wants to be the favorite parent. I, on the other hand, can't stand it when her nose is plugged up with green boogers, so I will take the wrath!

saron: nine months

Saron is crawling up on her hands and knees now and she's fast! She stands up on absolutely everything and even tries climbing things. She loves to be standing and moving and is never ever still. She has such a silly personality and loves to laugh and play. She is such a flirt and always gives a smile to anyone in her line of vision, whether it's someone she knows or a random stranger at the store.

Saron loves:

• Chocolate
• Snuggling in the morning after she wakes up
• Her daddy. She is still a big time daddy's girl

Saron hates:

• Getting her nose and face wiped
• Being left alone too long. She follows me everywhere!

saron; eight months

Saron just got her 7th and 8th teeth this week. I feel like teething has been my excuse for everything for, oh, about four months now. But I imagine it really does hurt like crazy for so many teeth to cut through within such a short time! She's still army crawling on her belly but has also figured out how to crawl on her hands and knees now, too. She pulls herself up to standing on everything now all the time. She's crazy ticklish, loves toys that make noise, and is generally very happy and friendly. She is such a little joy and I love the stage that she is at right now.

Saron loves:

• Eating. She'll eat just about anything and especially loves Cheerio's and Gerber puff snacks.
• Watching tv. No matter what is on or what room she is in. If she hears the tv, she will book it over to where she can see it
• Standing and climbing on everything. People's legs, her crib, tables, couches the bathtub, you name it
• Taking baths. She could play in the water for hours if I would let her
• Taking toys from other babies. She is totally that baby! If she sees someone with a toy (any toy) she will drop whatever she's doing to take it away from them. It drives me crazy!
• Blowing bubbles, spitting with her tongue out, babbling (gagagaga)
• Sucking her thumb
• Trying to eat grass whenever we go outside

Saron hates:

• Laying on her back and holding still to get her diaper and clothes changed
• Napping. Life is just way too exciting to be all alone in her crib
• Getting surprised. Sometimes if I walk into the room too suddenly she gets startled and cries!
• Being alone. Now that she can crawl, she follows me everywhere!

saron: seven months

Saron is seven months as of yesterday, can you believe it?! I sure can't! She is so much fun right now. Super ticklish and giggly, very playful and mostly super happy, except the occasional grumpiness from teething. She's super close to crawling; she kind of drags herself around on her belly. She absolutely adores her dad, and sometimes she just bursts out laughing when he walks into the room, it's so cute! And one thing that I love is that she loves to snuggle. It's the best! She truly is the light of my life and I can't imagine ever being without her.

Saron loves:

• Playing with toys on the floor
• Dragging herself around like an army crawl
• Playing and splashing in the big tub instead of her infant tub
• Food! She will eat just about anything and she eats a ton. Her favorites are oatmeal, bananas, squash and carrots
• Cheerios
• Watching tv. I know it's terrible, but she would watch tv all day if we would let her!

Saron hates:

• Being on her back. It is seriously IMPOSSIBLE to change her diaper or get her dressed because she is constantly trying to fight you to roll over and get on her tummy
• Getting her face and nose wiped
• Her sippy cup. She will not drink from it!

trailer two

The trailer for the very last Harry Potter movie was released! It's going to be the best movie of all time!

new tooth!

Saron's got a new tooth! Her top right canine popped through a little bit ago and I actually got a picture of it! Tyler thinks it makes her look like a hillbilly, but I think it's freakin' cute.

yummmmm

My new favorite treat:
Maggie Moo's red velvet ice cream with brownies.

Yummmmmmmm!

g'morning

 

Just hanging out here. Lately Saron loves chewing and sucking on my glasses and rips them off my face whenever she can. She thinks it's pretty funny.

happy easter!

congratulations are in order!

Congratulations, Tyler, for being accepted to the BFA in Graphic Design program at BYU! For those of you who don't know, it is a very big deal. BYU's program is one of the best in the nation and is extremely difficult to get into.

His application was turned in a couple of weeks ago, but his portfolio review was just yesterday. All of the candidates had to pick 15-20 of their best pieces and display them for the BFA faculty as the final deciding factor. It was just a room full of tables that they had to leave their artwork on. Tyler was up all night (literally) cutting things our and mounting everything on foam core, and in the middle of the night he had a stroke of genius. He decided last minute to make little stands so that he could display his artwork better. After he set everything up the next morning, he was the ONLY person to think of that! So while everyone else had their work flat on the table assigned to them (you can see someone else's behind in the picture below), Tyler's was standing up, making his the best looking and the one you were most drawn toward when you walked into the room. Pretty brilliant, huh?

I'm so proud of him. This has been a dream of his for so long and it's so great that he was able to accomplish it on his first try. It just goes to show how talented and how hard of a worker he is.