2*21*2010

Today was a long day. Reese didn't sleep well last night, I got up early to finish up my lesson for YW, and I had meetings starting at 10 am that would go straight through until church started at 1. This means from 10-4 we'd be at church. Reese is still a 2-a-day napper. She takes one an hour or two after she wakes up in the morning, and then one around 1 or 2 pm. Eric always has meetings in the morning, so I knew Reese would have to come to my meetings.

Reese was ready for her first nap by the time we got to the church for my 10:00 meeting, but she kept herself entertained with the drawer full of metal spoons in the church kitchen (where we had our meetings today). Luckily, since it was ward conference, I found out during my first meeting that I didn't have to teach today afterall, one less stress, phew. Well, Reese made it through the morning meetings, sacrament meeting, and sunday school, but the last hour was pushing it much too far. As soon as Reese was in her car seat, she put her blanket over her face and fell right to sleep.

I kept finding myself feeling bad for myself and the overly sensitive child with me but then the words of a wise lady would come into my head.

The other day, while at my internship, one of the ladies we train was saying how stressed she was with all the time her church calling was using up, that it was just too much. Another lady, Sue, said, "but that's what we're here for. We aren't here for ourselves. We are here to serve our Savior." She went on to talk about how some things we are required to do seem unnessecary but that if the Lord wants them done we need to do them. I was very grateful for Sue today.

Reese was glad that I had to make the dessert for our YW/YM etiquette dinner. I made Eclair Tortes and Reese definitely enjoyed the vanilla pudding/cream cheese mixture. After a bath we went outside to walk around on the driveway. Reese would be the happiest child alive if we could live outside, she has got a bad case of cabin fever.

Her and Hoover (the cat) have a love hate relationship. Reese loves Hoover, but I don't think Hoover's feeling are the same :)

Reese is now VERY fond of eating snow. She puts it in her mouth non-stop while we are out.

One of Reese's favorite things is to push Hoover away from her cat dish (see why Hoover might not love Reese) and start stuffing cat food in her mouth with one hand, while transferring the cat food from the food bowl to the water/milk dishes with the other hand (a habit that I need to break her from).

Maybe I should care that she eats cat food, but I really just don't. It's not gonna hurt her, so I figure I'd give her some of her own the other day so she wouldn't take Hoover's away.

2*17*2010

Last week Eric and I babysat my cousins while their parents went on a cruise. Four girls: 14, 12, 9, & 6. It was a lot of fun! It was fun playing mom to 5 girls for 10 days. There were dance recitals, dance practices, play dates, lots of baking, cooking, going to the park, grocery shopping, and laundry, and I handled it with no problem whatsoever, I was pretty proud. I think I'll be able to handle more kids (sometimes I just wonder). We also brought the girls to our house twice for snowmobiling, snowshoeing, and the hot pots. The girls are so fun, and they even named Eric and I the "Best babysitters." That's pretty good coming from teenage girls, now hopefully our own kids will think we are that cool (AAAH, I hope they don't go through a dislike their parents stage).

It was cute watching the girls interact with Eric. I remember being their ages and having a crush on my aunt Nicole's husband Lamont, I think they felt the same way about Eric. I'd catch them cuddling next to him while watching TV and hear little flirts come out of their mouths every once in a while. Eric is good with girls (good with people in general), and they LOVED him!

Sadly I didn't take any pictures the whole time. What was I thinking? We did so many fun things, oh well. Here are some pictures of mine and Reese's day today though.

This morning after I got home from my internship and Reese woke up from her nap (she is still in her jammies because I leave pretty early for my internship so I get her up early so she'll have an early nap while I'm gone, no need to change out of jams), we put her hair in piggy tails. It is all long enough except the very front so we clipped that back.

I'm baking dessert for our YM/YW etiquette dinner tonight so I had the oven on at 400 degrees for a couple hours. That coupled with the sun shining through the windows really did heat our house up. So what do we do when the house is hot? Strip her down to her diaper (her second favorite clothing status).

She did circus tricks on her bike. Notice that she still loves her tongue!

She found the leftover piece of material from her blanket Grandma Jill made her and strut her stuff. (She carries this piece of material all over because her favorite blanket, which is made from the same material, is too big and heavy for her to walk very far with. She even had to take it into Wal-Mart with her the other day).

She is liking her "baby" seats again, the Boppy and her Bouncer. So I finally brought them back down stairs so she can enjoy them.

And, as always, she sabotaged my desk and grabbed out the photo books :)

2*4*2010

Tomorrow morning I'll be a mom of 5 girls for 10 days. I'm quite excited! My aunt and uncle are going on a cruise so Eric and I get to go live with my cousins while their parents are gone. 'Twill be fun! I'm glad I won't have homework or anything else to worry about so I can focus on having fun with the girls and try to keep up with their extremely busy schedules (school, dance, and dance performances.)

Reese LOVES going upstairs but is SUPER obedient. It is funny to me that she understands things so well and actually obeys. What a good kid! She attempts going up the stairs multiple times an hour but if she hears me say "Stay downstairs, don't go up" she will stay at the bottom of the stairs even if I'm not watching her. She will however debate with me for a long time why she should be able to go up. It is cute! She stares at me and talks and talks with tones that definitely sound like she is giving me reasons why she should go up. If I don't give in, she'll eventually crawl back down the stairs (an ability I've been trying to teach her but didn't know she actually picked up). If I say, "ok, you can go up now" she takes off up the stairs [typically saying "DADA" as she makes her way straight towards Eric's office to say hi to him.] We haven't been perfect with the 30 minutes a day outside playing goal but we've done pretty well. Eric tucked Reese's blankets in around her before I took her on a walk yesterday and she was out within 10 minutes.

I love those pretty eyelashes. Ah, she is such a little angel!

Today we opted for playing in the snow over going for a walk. She doesn't like that her boots weigh 1/2 her body weight, and that her coat makes it so she can't get her arms down to her sides. So other than the frustration that came from those two things we had a good time swishing the snow around with our gloves, making snowballs, throwing them up, and smashing them while in the air, watching Hoover sharpen her claws on the tree bark, and kicking our boots on the rocks to make noise.

This morning while eating breakfast Reese started gabbing like crazy. I looked over at her and she was staring at a fly that was flying into the window repeatedly. She was so entertained. Later today the fly got worn out and was crawling/hopping/bursts of flying on the floor. Reese followed it around for a while. Then just an hour ago she found the fly again. This time it wasn't moving across the floor but was laying on its back kicking its legs. She was enchanted by it. She would touch it and then pull away with a face full of disgust. But she kept going back for more, until the little fly passed on (I think).

Never got around....

To posting about THE most eventful wedding of 2009! Mostly because I didn't have any pictures to post (I stole these off Rachel's facebook). Eric's cousin Micah finally married his beautiful girlfriend of over 4 years, Rachel, back on December 28th!! We couldn't have been more excited for them! They are so perfect for each other

Friends! (I know, I didn't make sure my face was visible to the photographer.)

The Men:

Grandma Gwen wasn't too fond of the snow falling into her hair and having to be in the cold for so long to get pictures taken. Eric was having quite the dilemma - photographer telling Eric to wheel Grandma over to get pictures taken and Grandma saying, "No, just take me to the car." Photographer got her way.

I am so glad Micah and Rachel are now married! Now I can stop stressing over whether or not they will break up since they are now hooked forever!! And I'm excited for them to have little Micah and Rachels to play with our little Eric and Nakitas :) I see many family vacations together in the future!!

Mobile Uploads

My dad emailed me these pictures from his phone. Fun memories! It is too bad this picture is so blurry but I just love how my mom is looking at Reese. Reese couldn't have grandparents who adored her more.

Camla and Reese at my g-ma and g-pa Boldt's 50th anniversary!

A few weeks ago when Reese and I were in Provo, my dad took us to Jimmy John's for lunch. Reese was being such a cheese ball!

I had Chelsea come over to my parents' house the other day to play with me while Reese napped. We played animals forever! I love the imagination this little girl has!

Me and Reese at the 50th party.

Eric is gone more often in the evenings now because he is back in school, so my parents called me and asked if I wanted to meet them in Heber for dinner. They are so nice to travel up the canyon just to give me and Reese some company.

I love this picture! Reese and her Papa. They have such a cute and sweet relationship!

Reese was playing at Papa and Grandma's house and was SO facinated by the ornaments on the Christmas tree.

This is Reese at a family dinner at my Grandparents house a few months ago. She was having fun sitting on the table being the center of attention :)

Reorganizing

Today I finally did a switch-a-roo that I've been needing to do for a LONG time! The cupboard that Reese is by is usually filled with glass jars of baby food, cereal, and snacks. The tupperware was in another cupboard that also had glass things in it, so it had a door lock on it. So to sum it up, Reese didn't have any cupboards that I felt comfortable letting her freely play in. Today I moved the baby food to the locked cupboard and the tupperware to the cupboard with cereal and snacks. Now she can have free range of that cupboard. It kept her occupied for a long time earlier today.

Oh, and that shirt reminds me of the task I still have not completed! CRAP! I have had all of Reese's Canadian citizenship papers filled out for a year now but I have to get like 10 notaries done, and it is a pain to find time when both Eric and I (since we both have to be there) can go get them notarized while the bank is open. My goal is to have it DONE this month. Hopefully I follow through, this month is a BUSY one!

A Ring and a lot of Snow

On Saturday Eric and I were able to take Jeremiah, David, and David's girlfriend Nicole out snowmobiling! (Thanks Camla for babysitting Reese!!) SO much fun and a much needed adrenaline rush. I can only go so long without an adrenaline rush (a good healthy one of course, no life threatening situations thank you) before life starts to seem monotonous.

I realized that since I no longer go snowmobiling with Eric every time he goes, we are on TOTALLY different levels. It was fun riding on the back with a pro!!

There were some sticky situations, Some crashes,Some girl talk,

A proposal (and an acceptance to the proposal!!!!),

A lot of checking the cell phone to make sure there were no missed calls from the babysitter,

And as always, a whole lot of fun!

What a great Saturday! It was so fun to be out on such a pretty day with lots of powder! We are so excited for Nicole to become part of the family. She and I are a lot alike so that makes it even more exciting for me!!

Baby Ty

Our friends, the Warburtons, just had their baby boy, Ty Matthew. Us and the Warburtons have already arranged Ty and Reese's marriage. Taylor is acquiring cows so that he has a bride price ready for us when Reese comes of age :)

Here is Reese out in the hospital waiting room, practicing her model moves for when she meets Ty. Congratulations Taylor and Liesl, he is such a handsome little guy!

Proud future father - in - law!!! ;)