8 Months Old

When Blaine was a newborn I had the intention of writing monthly blog updates to keep track of his progress. Obviously that hasn't happened, BUT I have been writing everything down. Every month I've written him a letter that goes into detail about what he's learned, what he likes to do/eat, sleeping habits, clothes size, etc. and then I stick a picture in there with him in a white onesie. Every month I've taken a picture of him laying down and then one of his face, and a couple of months ago I added a picture of him sitting up too. Last month, though, I could not get him to lay down and stay still long enough to take a picture so I think I have to give up on that idea. I guess it does show true progression, though.

Blaine is getting so big so fast! He's perfected his army crawl and there is no stopping him now. He still rolls a bit, but nothing like last month. It's hard to do anything now because I always have to watch him to make sure he's not getting into trouble, like playing in Lola's water bowl or ripping up a magazine or something. He loves, loves, loves to eat and he's started to prefer finger foods over baby food. His new favorite foods are animal cookies and cheerios, but carrots still hold a special place in his heart. He's just started to learn how to wave and clap, and he turns off the light switch for me whenever we leave a room. He hates being put on his back, so changing his diaper is not a fun experience. We moved him into a "big boy car seat" at the beginning of September and it has made riding in cars SO much easier, but he still does not like long trips. When we're driving down to Salt Lake he decides that he has had enough by the time we reach Ogden and by the time we've hit Bountiful he's screaming. It's rough.

I used to be so scared of taking him to the grocery store with me because I wasn't sure if I could handle a baby and shopping, and after one mishap in the store [he ate my list....] on our very first trip I'd like to think that we've mastered shopping together and now we have a great time. He loves riding in the cart with his cart cover, and he is always talking to people and smiling. He also loves being outside and being in his stroller.

He has two little teeth and my mom is convinced that more are coming in. He got them at the same time and they didn't bother him one little bit, which was nice. He likes to bite me with them though, which isn't as nice.

He loves sleeping at night, but he still wakes up 2-3 times a night to eat. He's sleeping 12-14 hours now and takes about 3 naps a day. His morning nap is usually 1-2 hours, and then he has two 30-45 minute naps later in the day.

He's wearing a size 4 diaper during the day and a size 5 at night, and his onesies, pjs, and most shirts are size 18 months. His pants are mostly still size 12 months because he is ALL torso and has short legs in comparison. He's definitely an Evershed.

On an extra note about clothes, I have been letting Blaine help me as he's getting ready for his bath. He is an expert at taking off his own clothes which I thought was really funny at first. Now it's just not practical. He won't keep hats, gloves, shirts, socks, or shoes on.

Also, since we've been staying with my parents, Blaine has started imitating our dog Caleb. I'm not quite sure how to describe the noise Caleb makes, because all I can think about saying is that it sounds like a friendly growl...but that just doesn't quite cut it. Whatever the sound is, he does it when he wants someone to pet him and Blaine makes it back to him. He also is good at controlling when he sticks his tongue out at people, and does it now when people do it to him first.

I have pictures, but they're on my camera and I don't have enough time to upload them right now. Blaine is sleeping and I have to get as much done as possible. Usually I use this time to nap, but I can't afford a nap anymore =]

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Blaine sure is a fun little guy! He is now eating all sorts of fun finger foods, rolling and crawling around EVERYWHERE, and saying all sorts of fun little sounds. It's also been decided that he loves Lola more than he loves us. It's the sad truth.

He's such a big boy! He's 29 1/2 inches and 23 lbs (as of November 2nd); I wish that my arms were getting as muscular as I think they should be.

I've noticed that, as of lately, Blaine is starting to develop quite the little attitude. He is fond of throwing little tantrums when he doesn't get what he wants, so we're working on that. Sort of. I guess I should just say that we're working on it as much as possible.

He is also turning into a Momma's Boy, which I have mixed feelings about. Sometimes he is good with other people, but more often than not he cries or fusses until I pick him back up. That's not ideal, obviously.

On a more positive note, he is a fantastic little eater! He doesn't like green beans or peas unless I mix them with something else, but he'll still eat them with a cute little grimace on his face. He loves finger foods, yogurt, and carrots. And, despite his temper (which I'm sure he inherited from me), he is pretty mellow. I know it seems like having a temper and being mellow is impossible to mix, but really he is pretty easy-going. He only gets mad when I take something away from him or put him on his back to change his diaper when he'd rather crawl around, but in other situations he could really care less. For example, when we're at church he is constantly being climbed over, sat on, and pushed over by the other girl babies who are older [but the same size] as Blaine, and he could care less. Every time they steal a toy he finds another one. Every time they sit on/lay on/stand on him he just hangs out until they move. His cousin Samantha pushed him over and then sat on him playing with her blocks and what did my sweet boy do? Absolutely nothing. Cute little guy.

As I already mentioned he absolutely, positively, without a doubt loves Lola. She liked him a lot more before he could follow her around; now she spends the majority of her time up on the couch or on the bed. Blaine always grabs her fur and then rubs his cheek on her, smiling and laughing. She is such a good sport with him and she puts up with it. I'm trying to teach him the word "soft" [better early than late, right?] and I have him pet her. I'm starting to notice that more and more he is just rubbing her fur rather than grabbing it, and I'd like to pretend that it's because of me. I have a genius baby that understands the word "soft," awesome! Lola is still very, VERY protective over him and I can't wait to see them become the best of friends as he gets older.

Here are some recent pictures of my little guy, including two of his destruction.

His very first time realizing that he can pull the movies down.

Playing the drums

First Thanksgiving!

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Our friend Abbey took our family pictures last week and I love how they turned out! We had to do it fast because it was cold and we didn't want Blaine to be outside but it was fun because this is our first year with our family pictures in the snow!

Just as a side note, we did not plan the snow. We had the date planned for about two weeks and it dumped snow on us that day, and we didn't have the luxury of being able to reschedule. Of course the weather was perfect for fall pictures the following day...and the day after that...and the day after that. Oh well.

Here are four of my favorites =]

Blaine got a new pair of shoes! I'm so excited about them!

In my opinion they are the cutest little things ever. I'm not going to lie, though, I spent 30 minutes walking around Walmart deliberating if I could justify spending $10 on a pair of shoes for him.

Hi, my name is Natalie and I have an addiction to being annoyingly frugal.

He's too cool to smile

Do you see the little bit of plaid on the back of the shoe? So cute! Also there are little paw prints on the bottom. And they're Velcro which is the best ever. He especially likes the Velcro, because like the straps on his diaper he can take it off and it makes such a fun sound. He has a hard time crawling around in them, though. I feel bad giggling when his little feet start flailing around in them.

I've been really busy lately.

For a while after Blaine was born I was glad if I remembered to brush my teeth before noon, or if I ever managed to get out of my pajamas. Then I slowly worked up to being excited about making dinner, cleaning the house, etc.

I've been wanting to get back into the crafty side of life again, though. All I can say about that is to watch what you wish for.

Everything seemed to pile up on me all at once and let me tell you...I was NOT ready for it all. It has been an exciting week, but now I'm exhausted.

First I made an impromptu menu planner. I'm really bad at choosing meals, buying the ingredients, then forgetting what it was I wanted to make and rushing to use everything before it goes bad. OR I start to stock-pile random ingredients. It's bad. So I found a small white board that RJ used to use for his chemistry classes and I sweetly asked him if he still needed it. I did a little happy dance when he said no.

Originally I was going to write the days of the week in Sharpie marker all ghetto like, but then I remembered that my friend Jacqueline has a cricut. Obviously the better choice. So I went over to her apartment, cut out some cute letters and then used some double-sided tape (that I meticulously cut to fit around my 1-inch letters) to stick them to the white board. Presto-chango it's not some boring chemistry tool anymore! Now it sits all pretty on the side of my fridge and it works like a charm.

Our door is now graced with this cute little wreath that I made for fall! (Okay, this is a little bit cheating because I had to buy stuff for this one. But it was only $3.)

I also made a spontaneous pair of church pants for Blaine. I've been searching for months for a cute little black pair of pants for him and was always coming up empty handed. Then one Sunday I realized that over the week he out-grew his khaki's. Bummer. I had an hour before church and nothing to dress my cute little boy in. A light bulb went off in my head and I remembered that RJ had put a black t-shirt in the "give away" pile. So I grabbed a pair of pants that did fit Blaine, traced them onto the t-shirt, sewed up the crotch and side seems and made a cute little pair of church pants! It took me about 20 minutes in total, but that's because I didn't finish the seams AND I used the original hem of the shirt as the hem of the pants. Some might call it lazy, but I call it efficient. =]

I probably shouldn't have taken the picture against our black couch...but oh well. You get the idea.

Then I started making our Halloween costumes. Then I stopped because we were told that the Halloween party was potentially not going to be a costume party. Say what? Who has a Halloween party that doesn't involve costumes?! Well, two days before the party they let us know that the costumes were back on and so I got to sewing. I fortunately didn't have to do much for RJ and I except make some masks out of an old t-shirt, and Blaine's costume wasn't terribly complicated either. I used an old pillow case, cut off the top, unpicked a few inches from the seam for arm holes, and then sewed on a money sign that I cut from left-over fabric. Then I measured his head to make a hat using the top of the pillow case and hot-glued some monopoly money I had laying around -only $10s and $100s were used, of course. 30 minutes later I had a cute -and FREE-costume. Boom. So cool.

Side note: Blaine LOVES to be in this pillow case. Every time I put him in it to measure the arm holes or to put it he started laughing and cracking up. He is too funny.

The same time I was making our costumes I also made a little stuffed elephant for my friend Audrey who just had a baby girl. The nursery is decorated in pink elephants, so I thought this would be a cute addition. I followed a pattern that I found online and ended up making my own because that one was stupid. Who ever made it should never attempt it again. Ever.

I was getting a serious headache using the original pattern and I wanted to throw the whole thing away in the trash can a few times. But I finished and I think it looks cute. It's a tiny little elephant, only about 10 inches tall and it's skinny -perfect for baby Kali's tiny little hands.

And finally, I made a fun sign for the bathroom just because I can. I typed it up in some fun font that I downloaded off of Pinterest, painted an old frame that we had sitting in a box, and stuck it up on my wall for some bathroom humor. I like it.

I don't have a picture of this yet. Sorry. It says, "Wash your hands [Mom said so]"

The best part about all of this craftiness was that I didn't pay for any of it. I used scrap fabric, old frames, and project left overs to finish every single thing.

I have a bajillion projects that I'd love to do, but I'd have to pay to make those so they're just going to have to wait. Unfortunately.

What I do since I'm home all day

When RJ and I were both in school our lives were hectic, to say the least. We ate a lot of frozen pizza (super nasty); our bed was hardly ever made by morning time -in fact, almost every night I made it right before I got into bed; I would spend Saturdays frantically cleaning; we almost never had a real, sit at the table and eat breakfast; once in a blue moon I'd make sandwiches for us to take for lunch. Let's not even discuss how the laundry worked out.

Then I was home all the time, but I was pregnant and so tired all the time. Nothing much changed, except for the fact that I was home during the day. What a failure.

But! now I am home with sweet little baby cake all day, and things actually get done. I make a good, healthy breakfast for RJ every single morning, and he always has a lunch to take to school; I vacuum and wipe down the counters every day, and there is hardly ever a dirty dish in the sink; the bed is always made after my morning nap; and there are no frozen pizzas in sight (thank goodness); ANDDDDD I do laundry regularly and fold/put it away as soon as it comes out of the dryer I'm not going to lie. I feel pretty cool.

Aside from being the greatest house wife of all time, I have also been selling off our stuff. Old clothes that we never wear, random kitchen gadgets that we were given for our wedding that we couldn't return, textbooks, etc. If we don't use it then that means it's just taking up valuable space! So far I've made about $30, which is awesome considering I'm selling everything for $5 or less. Boom. This money is just going into the diaper fund, but still, it's awesome.

I've also been reading. A lot. I love this. I love that I have the time to read again, because I really missed it when I was going to school. I have a goal to read a book a week, which usually happens. I've read a lot of really good books lately (MOM!), and I would love to suggest some to you (MOM!), but you might be too cool to take my suggestions (MOM!).

I've also been into trying new recipes that generally don't include carbs. Yes. You heard it first. This bread squirrel (family nick name) has put down her bad junkie habit for a healthier life style. Basically I just wanted to lose the last of my pregnancy weight, so I gave up bread. I still have some carbs, like cereal, but I try to avoid sandwiches, toast, and especially garlic bread. Garlic bread is made by the devil and express-delivered right to my hips. For real. It was hard at first, but I'm proud that my exercise and willpower has paid off and that I'm down to my pre-pregnancy weight. Double boom.

Anyway, back to recipes. We've enjoyed a lot of tasty dishes thanks to Pinterest, but today was Lola's turn to partake in the festivities. I made dog treats! Right now you're probably thinking that I'm the greatest dog owner of all time, right? Well you're right. I am. Just kidding. But seriously.

How cute is that?! My mother-in-law gave me 100 cookie cutters when we got married and they are basically the most exciting thing sitting in my cupboard of baking goodies. I have all sorts of shapes, including this dog bone. I made her treats out of oatmeal, peanut butter, honey, and wheat flour. She loved them! The best part is that I made 16 of them for about $1, and they are bigger than they look in the picture. They're about 5 inches long and 2 inches thick. She's in doggie heaven right now.

And last but not least, I have a new hobby: indexing. Every night I index about 100 names, maybe a little more depending on how tired I am. Indexing is super fun and easy, and it's a way that I can do genealogy-type stuff without much thought. Is that wrong to say? Probably.

For all of you who don't know, this is what indexing is: I go through census records, ship's passenger lists, draft cards, etc. and type the handwritten information so that when people are searching through records the information is more easily obtained. It's pretty fun and interesting to see all the names and places of birth. It also makes family history work about a billion times easier, because I don't have to search through pages and pages of census records. Census records are fun, but not ideal. True story.


I must admit that it was hard for me to turn down a teaching position, but I am so glad I did. As stressful as things might be right now, I love being home every day with my little guy. I love being able to keep my home clean, and I love knowing that RJ has a good breakfast to start his day and a lunch to hold him over. Mostly I love being a momma though. Look at this cute little guy; how could I not want to spend all day cuddling and playing with him?

All ready for church!

Wish List

I'm going to take a second and tell all 21 of you who publicly follow my blog, and everyone else that follows in secret, what I wish for. I know, I know. You were DYING to know. You're welcome.

-I wish that I could redo my wedding. Not because I didn't have the best day ever, but because I want to redo it. I had so much fun planning and participating in my wedding that I wish I could marry RJ again every single year on our anniversary. Mostly it's because I want a new dress (not that I could ever find one that I'd love more than my first), and I want new pictures, and new people, and new gifts. For real. If I could go back and change anything from my wedding, it would be our registry. We put some lame things on there that we thought were necessary for our survival as newlyweds. WRONG. Why didn't anyone tell me to register for something important....like a kick butt vacuum!

-I want new sheets. Badly. I hate our sheets so much that every night I get into bed and I say, "I hate you sheets." And every morning I wake up. I hate them.

-I want a new couch. When RJ and I first got married we thought we were really smart to move into a place with (brand new, I promise) furniture so we wouldn't have to buy anything that we would have to either sell or move. Well, one thing led to another and eventually we were living in a place that we hated (more than our sheets, at the time) and we skeedattled out of that place. That left us with our clothes, dishes and other kitchen gadgets, towels, sheets, pillows, blah blah, and an over-sized bean bag. We were clearly ready to be married adults, right? So we went about finding all of our furniture. We scored some good deals on a brand new mattress, box spring and frame and on a used coffee table, entertainment center, and kitchen table. All we really needed was a couch. There was a particular couch that I wanted, and every time I found someone selling it they were either selling it for too much, or it was nabbed by someone else before I got to it. So, in a moment of panic, I bought the first couch and love seat that I was mildly fond of for more than I think I should have spent. In my pregnant mind, though, I thought that I needed to get a couch before it was too late because no one could ever possibly live without a couch! Stupid, stupid, stupid. First of all, I bought it in August and we moved in December. Second, obviously we could have lived without a couch for a couple of weeks or so because students are always selling their couches. Now we have couches that I don't mind, but I don't love and I want a new one.

-I want a gift certificate to Jo-Anns so I can decorate my home with curtains, and picture frames, and flowers, and cute things. I'd say that I want the money to do so, but if you gave me the money for it I'd put all the money in my savings account. I always tell myself that when we move for grad school that I will put up curtains because we'll be there for about 6 years. It doesn't seem totally worth it to me here since we'll be moving. I think I'm saying that to myself, though, so I feel better about my ugly, curtainless windows.

-I wish, I yearn, I dream of a pantry in my kitchen. (Funny side story: at first I typed that I wanted a panty in my kitchen. Heh.)

-I wish that I didn't want to finish off the rest of the birthday cake sitting on my counter right now.

-I wish that I had an extra bedroom and/or giant closet for storage.

Among other things, those are my vain desires right now. I'm sure you feel much more satisfied now.

The semester of extra classes

Once upon a time, RJ and I were supposed to graduate in December 2010. I did. He didn't. Due to some unfortunate set backs in his classes, he was postponed. Again. And again. And again. And now it's the Fall 2012 semester, and we're still here. But that's besides the point!

I still walked at the December 2010 commencement ceremony because, dang it, I worked my butt off to get there! However, I hadn't technically finished all of my classes. At that point we figured it would only take an extra semester, maayyybbeeee two at the most for RJ to finish. I decided that getting a teaching job and getting set up in a classroom wasn't worth it. Have I mentioned we're still here? Hmph.

At the time I had a great job working on campus, so I decided to postpone my student teaching until Fall 2011 so I could take some fun classes for two semesters and keep my job. I decided that I wanted to learn how to sew, because I'm domestic like that.

Lucky for me I met my super fantastic friend Whitney in my first sewing class. It was fate. We're craft buddies, game buddies, and buddy buddies now.

Also lucky for me, I found out that I love to sew. So I took 4 sewing classes total; I even took 3 sewing classes in one semester. It consumed my life...and my paycheck.

I learned how to do all sorts of nifty things, starting off from the very basics: a pillow case. Looking back now I laugh at how proud I was of my silly little pillowcase, but at the time I felt mega accomplished. I followed the pillowcase with pj pants, then a dress shirt, a skirt, and somewhere down the line I learned different home decor projects, slacks, children's clothes, RJ's favorite flannel shirt (I matched up all the plaid. BAM!), a cute little jacket, and a gazillion other projects that I loved.

One, in particular, was my favorite. The blessing dress. This was the final project in my children's sewing class, and this also happens to be the (second to) last final stab at defiance against Sister Miller. Not only did I refuse to look through her idea book of past student's projects, use the nasty material that she said was the "only way to go" with this project, but I didn't even use her pattern. In my defense, she brought this upon herself.

Whitney and I went to JoAnn's Fabric and deliberated over buttons and fabric for what felt like eternity. She decided on Dupioni silk, and I chose a white satin with a lace overlay, and little white rose buttons for the back. I was in love with my bag of fabric, and I was so excited to get started. The next day I started cutting out my pattern pieces for the dress I had dreamed up, and Sister Miller walked over to tell me that I was making a big mistake for using satin and lace. Something about how disappointed I'd be if my future daughter ruined it, because it'd be hard to clean. I told her I'd take pictures as soon as I put her in it, and got back to work. She didn't like that. Oh well.

When I finished I was so proud. So, so proud. But then I thought, wait a second, what if I have a boy? I thought that maybe I should make an outfit for him too while I was already in the class, but I was taking 2 other sewing classes at the time and it was finals week. I had no choice but to postpone the idea in my head.

Then I got pregnant. And had a boy. Figures. I had every intention of making Blaine a blessing outfit...but then he didn't sleep at night. I decided I'd buy him a shirt and make pants, a tie, and a vest. Then I had issues with nursing, so I settled on making a tie and a vest. Then he still wasn't sleeping and I figured that a tie would work, that it would still be special. But then I couldn't find a ding-dang outfit that I could just add a tie to, so when my mom found a sweet little outfit for him I gave up. I called it special since it was from Grandma and Grandpa, which really does make it special.

And then, for no reason at all, I started to feel guilty about my beautiful blessing dress patiently sitting in my Baby Boy's closet. I decided that I would sell it, so that I wouldn't even attempt to use it for my daughter. I asked my neighbor if I could borrow her beautiful little girl and use her as a model so I could sell my dress on Etsy.com. I had every intention of putting it for sale tonight.

Then I saw her in the dress and my heart melted. There was a little girl in my dress that I made. That I fought for. That I spent hours making the roses, and then sewing them to the belt, which I attached  all by hand. I remembered being terrified to serge around the seems of the sleeves, and Sister Lammons (the BEST sewing teacher of all time) sitting to the right of me saying that I was being a sissy, that I knew how to do it; and Whitney was on my left saying, "Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, I can't believe you're not practicing first! Oh my gosh, oh my gosh..." I remembered carrying it around on campus and freaking out if anyone got near it, for fear that it might get ruined.

My dress was on a baby, and I loved it. I told RJ that I couldn't sell it, and he agreed. I still want to use it, and it might give Blaine a complex, but I'll deal with that later. Or maybe I'll just lie and tell him that I made his too. Who knows.

I might be a little biased since I made it, but I think it's fantastic.  

I love the scalloped bottom of the lace, and the slight puff to the sleeves. I even love the arm band, which you can't see and doesn't really even have anything that special about it.

All I can say now is that I hope I have a girl.... =]

PS: This is my one and only moment of bragging, so don't bring me down.

All's well that begins...well...badly.

Blaine woke up this morning about 1 hour and 15 minutes later than usual. You think I should be celebrating...but I wasn't. His diaper had leaked through his pj's and he was all wet. I also figured that since he woke up later he would take his naps later, therefore throwing off the rest of the day.

I got him out of bed, changed his diaper and his clothes, and then came out to feed him. After he ate we tried some applesauce. He wasn't a fan. Then I tried to make RJ some breakfast, and Baby Boy quickly let me know that he did NOT appreciate being in the high chair without me sitting next to him. So what did he do? He threw all of his toys off his high chair. I put them back (stupid, stupid, stupid...) and sat with him for a couple of minutes. Then I stood up and walked back to the cupboards, only to hear the all-to-familiar sound of toys hitting the floor. I turned around and he was smiling, as he was holding the last of his toys over the edge of the high chair. We made eye contact for a few seconds, I smiled and said in a nice, mommy voice, "No, no, no baby...you silly little guy...don't drop tha." You're probably thinking that I accidentally didn't finish typing my sentence, right? Wrong. He cut me off mid-sentence by dropping the toy. Then laughing at me. I picked them all back up and put them on the table and decided that I could probably entertain him long enough to make oatmeal by singing and dancing and basically making a fool of myself. As soon as the oatmeal finished cooling he started to get really mad, but I kept him in his high chair long enough to add the milk to the oatmeal. Then I put it on the table, picked him up out of his high chair and started to walk back to the bedroom to get RJ.

Then I thought of something brilliant! I thought that I would earn major wife-points for my awesome idea, and had Blaine not interfered I'm pretty sure I would have. We're out of fruit to add to oatmeal, so I thought about adding a few chocolate chips to make it tasty. I know, I know...it's a super healthy idea. So I grabbed the bag out of the cupboard and tipped the bag over just a slight bit to put only a few chips in there. And then I saw this cute little hand grab the bag and pull down. All of a sudden I was looking at half of a bag of chocolate chips in the oatmeal, and the other half on the table.

I tried to scoop out as many as possible, but since the bowl was so hot they were melting quickly. I gave up and stirred, hoping that I wouldn't put my husband in a sugar coma. I picked up Blaine, not thinking that I had melted chocolate on my hands, and told RJ that breakfast was ready. He took a bite and smiled, thanked me for my attempt, but told me there was WAY too much chocolate. He ate it anyway, because he's a good sport.

So at this point it's only 9 AM and I have a husband who's ingested a week's worth of chocolate, and a chocolate covered baby. Awesome.

As RJ got ready for school Blaine and I played and he practiced two things: sitting up on his own and falling. He wasn't too partial to the latter. He fell asleep at 10, and so did I. Things became much better from this point on. He slept for two glorious hours, and so did I. BOOM! Then Katie and I took our cute babes (and Lola!) on a walk. Followed by nap time # 2 for Blaine, and cleaning time for me. When he woke up I got dinner in the oven, and then sat outside with Katie while Ros and Cal played, and Blaine sat there and looked really cool being the only guy. Then I came in, gave my cute baby a bath and put him to bed, and ate my delicious dinner.

Today started off rocky, but ended perfectly. I have a beautiful baby in fuzzy pajamas fast asleep in his crib; a closet/dresser full of clean clothes; freshly vacuumed floors; and half of a delicious meal waiting patiently in the oven until my cute hubby gets home.

Dear Yucaipa,

It's been real. It's been fun. Heck, it's been real fun.

While I was in Yucaipa I learned a lot! When I first got there I weighed 12.13 lbs and was 24 inches long.

I still wasn't a big fan of sleeping or of being by myself. My mom had to hold me all the time, and she had to rock me to sleep.

Now I really appreciate nap time. I went from taking three 20 minute naps to taking one 2 hour nap and two 1 hour naps. 

I met my aunts, Katie and Kristen. They sure are pretty!

I met my Great-Grandma, too! She was always talking to me, and she gave me my favorite toy!

I learned how to make my bouncer move, how to hold my own toys, how to get my feet in my mouth, and I learned that my hands taste really good...especially my Great-Grandpa's!

While I was here I learned how to roll over from my stomach to back!

I learned how to roll over from my back to my stomach, too! My momma doesn't have a video of that yet.

I went swimming for the first time!

I took my first plane ride to visit Dad in Davis!

I went power walking with my mom and grandma!

I was turned around in my stroller so I could see out into the world.

I read books with Grandma,

And Grandpa told me all about guns and music.

I saw a lot of animals, and I pet Lola for the first time. I sure do love her!

I ate my first bowl of cereal. I didn't like it too much, but it grew on me.

I learned how to sit up all by myself. Well...sort of. I'm still working on it, but I'm getting better every day!

I learned that my arm pits and feet are ticklish, I learned how to use my vocal chords to make all sorts of fun sounds, and I figured out how to stick my tongue out.

I decided that I didn't like crying to get mom's attention when I woke up. So instead I learned how to thump my legs against the mattress until someone came to get me.

I learned how to splash in the bathtub and blow spit bubbles.

And I learned that I still love to cuddle with my momma.

Now I'm leaving Yucaipa and I am so much bigger! I wear a size 4 diaper, I'm 22 lbs and 29 inches long. I'm going to miss being with all those fun people in California, but I can't wait to be in cooler weather. My first night up in the Mountain West and I'm already sleeping in footed pajamas! It's the BEST! Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa for letting me stay with you all summer. I can't wait to see you again in November!

Love,
Blaine

   

The Rogers in My Life

I have 3 great Rogers in my life. My father-in-law who is caring, intelligent, generous, selfless, humble, and so funny. He's such a great example to all of his boys, which I am very grateful for.

Roger Blaine III, my sweet little baby boy is the newest Roger in the family and my new best friend. Blaine and I play all day, and I love seeing how much he grows. He is so sweet, and he loves cuddling with me (I obviously don't even need to say how much I love that, too). His personality is really starting to show, and I am lucky because he is so happy. Even these past two weeks when he has been so sick he's been smiling, laughing, cooing, and playing with me. I love my little man so much!

But, my most favorite Roger of all is Roger Jr. The Baby Buddha. Oats. RJ is so sweet and so loving. There is no one else in the entire world that I would rather be with.

Here are some pictures that I love. Do I have a super handsome husband or WHAT?!

Family picture 2009

Family picture 2010

Family picture 2011-adding Lola and a baby!

Graduating!

Halloween 2011- Best Costumes

Tate Wedding

Disneyworld

Vernal, UT

R Mountain

Beaver Dick Park

I love you, RJ! Thank you for being my best friend, husband, and eternal companion.