A Few of February's Many Mini Adventures

We have had lots of mini adventures in the past week or two. This due to the fact that I have discovered (through this mom journey of mine) that I am NOT one of those people that can stay in the house all day, every day. I have to get out and do things or I LOSE MY MIND. So, after being cooped up in the house for too long and realizing that I was entirely too grumpy, enough was enough. We had to get out.

We drove the short couple of miles from our house to the canyon trail and went for a long walk. The weather was just a little too cold to be without a sweater but when we walked in the sun it was almost perfect. I can’t wait for spring. Actual spring with warm sunshine and green and no more snow! And I am SO grateful to live in a place where there is an actual real spring (usually). There wasn’t much of a spring in St. George where I grew up. Instead, we had a few weeks of winter followed by a never-ending summer. Emma watched Daisy, completely mesmerized, for nearly the entire walk. I pulled her out of her stroller when we reached the bridge so that I could show her the rushing water below. She pointed down at it with her chubby little finger (I love that she points at everything right now.) “OOO! OOO!” she cried over and over again. She has always loved water. We tossed rocks in and she followed them with her big brown eyes until they hit the water, then she would look up at us expectantly to toss another. I put a rock in her tiny hand so that she could drop it from the bridge but she held it tight, refusing to let go of her prize. When I tried to take it from her, she growled at me. (Another one of her “things” right now) I just love my silly little monster.

Another night we had a little picnic in the park and pushed Emma on the swing. She was so cute clinging to the chains and smiling softly as we pushing her back and forth. Emma loves to swing. She made excited noises as she saw little children run by and looked all around in awe. The world is amazing to her right now.

 

Isn't that the cutest cookie covered face you've ever seen??

This week we headed down to St. George for a couple of days so Sam could work and Emma and I hung out with grandma S while daddy was at work. We ate at crackerbarrel (Emma munched on scrambled eggs, mashed potatoes, and lemons…yum) and then went to visit my grandpa. Emma loves her great grandpa Roger and sat in his lap contently for the first long part of the visit. I caught myself wishing my grandma was still there several times as I watched Emma look excitedly at her dolls around the house. Emma loves dolls right now. She and my grandma would have been kindred spirits, that’s for certain. It was a nice visit and even Chance had a good time playing with me and Emma. Chance is autistic and I always get excited when I have an opportunity to connect with him a little bit more.  

 

At Crackerbarrel with mom and grandma

 Later that day, when Sam got off work, we went with grandma Mary to the duck pond. We fed them pieces of bread and Emma watched eagerly as they swam up to the shore, a few of them even brave enough to grab the pieces that we threw in front of us on the grass.

Mary has a great big poodle, Buddy. His name suits him perfectly as he just wants to be everybody’s buddy all the time. He doesn’t seem to understand quite how big he is and just thinks he should be able to sit and lay on you like a little lap dog can. He’s a great big fluffy, cuddly thing with cartoon-like eyes. Emma laughs at him as Sam chases him through the house when we come to visit. After the duck pond, we drove to a big empty field so that Buddy and Sam could run around in an attempt to tire buddy out. (It didn’t work. He was rested and ready to play shortly after we arrived back at the house.) But, we had fun watching them run around anyway.

The next day, Emma and I paid a visit to my cousin, Wesley and his family. Wesley’s sweet wife, Heather just recently had a baby boy. He is beautiful! Stefan has beautiful, dark blue eyes and the cutest chubby cheeks and thighs you have ever seen. Emma pointed to his nose and seemed pretty amused by him. She walked back and forth across the couch behind where I sat as I held baby Stefan for as long as he wanted me to. I remembered when Emma was that little and missed it just a little bit. She’s changed so much so quickly! I had a wonderful visit with their sweet family and we talked about how fun it would be when the kids were old enough to really play together.

I cut myself out of the picture because, let's face it-these two are too cute to compete with.

Over the weekend, we had a couple of celebrations to attend! First was my nephew, Cooper’s first birthday party! I can hardly believe it’s been an entire year since little Cooper’s birth. My mother-in-law reminded me of the fact that we had all been at my baby shower last year when she got the call that Katy was in labor and Cooper would soon be here! Seems like just yesterday and yet so long ago! I was so excited when Katy asked me to decorate Cooper’s smash cake and the cake that the rest of us would eat at his party. Unfortunately, through some weird mishap, the big cake melted on the drive down to St. George! That has never happened in all the times I have transported a cake to St. George (which is where Cooper’s party was held) and I was pretty upset about it! Luckily, Sam’s family is extremely sweet and laid back-they were very understanding about the whole thing. Cooper’s cake melted just a little but, still looked cute for the pictures-and he seemed to enjoy it! It took him a minute but he pretty much annihilated that cake once he got going!

It was a warm, sunny day in St. George and we enjoyed some family fun in the park. Katy got some cute Mickey Mouse themed items for the party-including adorable little party hats.  We watched Cooper eat his cake and open presents, played in the grass and on the playground, and ended the fun with a few games of pickle ball. I especially enjoyed pushing Cooper and Emma on the swing together. There’s nothing better than playing with your cousins.

Later that day, we celebrated Daisy’s birthday. Daisy has two sisters that were also adopted by Sam’s family  members. Lily is Sam’s mothers and Maggie (short for Magnolia) is Sam sister’s. Of course, the dogs had to have their own cake. Unfortunately, Maggie lives in Montanta and wasn’t able to join us but, Daisy and Lily did have two other party guests; Buddy and Izzy (Izzy is a dog that we puppy-sit frequently). The dogs devoured as much of the cake as we would let them before we decided to take it away. Scroll to the bottom for the recipe!

Wish I had a picture with both birthday girls and the rest of the party guests! It's hard to
capture a bunch of overly excited animals!

And of course, I have to mention that Emma turned 10 months! Emma got all 5 of her teeth this month so we've had some teething adventures this month as well. She doesn't like to show them off much so I still don't have a very good picture but, they sure are cute! 

She loves to point at everything and is constantly saying "oooh!". She also says mama and dada. She really doesn't like to hold still much. She can walk and stand with a little support and stands some without support too. 

She learned that is super funny to spit out her food and make a big mess every time she eats (that's been really fun for mom.) She loves to eat yogurt, peanut butter, scrambled eggs (but ONLY with pepper), peas, and anything that mom is eating. 

She's really in to stuffed animals and dolls right now! She loves her Elmo doll and wakes up happy if he's left in the crib for her to play with. She loves to point out the noses on dolls.

Emma LOVES books! She insists on a few before naps or she will wiggle and cry until I give in! She also loves to look at them on her own (upside down or right side up) and point at all of the characters in the book.

 She is extremely busy and likes to be on the go all the time! This girl requires plenty of stimulation and fun. She loves to be outside and around water. 

We got sick again this month and I am NOT KIDDING...Emma learned how to blow her nose. Like, you hold a tissue up to her nose and she actually blows her nose. I was amazed when she did it the first time and didn't really believe it myself!

She loves to be around people and is very chatty. She is friendly with people we see in restaurants, at church, and pretty much everywhere we go. She especially loves visiting grandparents. 

I love my big brown-eyed beauty.

Kind of a blurry picture of Emma at church later in the day but,
isn't her outfit so cute??

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Daisy’s Birthday Cake Recipe:

Ingredients:

2 cups whole wheat flour

1 cup low sodium chicken broth

1 cup shredded carrots

½ heaping cup unsweetened applesauce

½ cup peanut butter

1 egg

Directions:

Mix all ingredients together well. Pour into a greased, 6” round cake pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes until cooked all the way through. Frost with peanut butter and top with your dog’s favorite treat!

Reminiscing: A Sappy Love Post

February has got me filled with all thoughts pink, red, sappy, and romantic. I spent many of Emma’s nap times carefully cutting out hearts to hang in my windows or stringing valentine themed banners together before the day of love. I’ve filled my living room with daisies (my favorite) and covered the coffee table with my beautiful valentine table runner handmade by a sweet friend of mine. I even covered Emma in lipstick kisses for a picture which I put on our valentines this year. Unfortunately for Emma, the lipstick didn’t come off easily and she had kiss marks for days. She wasn’t very happy about the whole ordeal.

A VERY HAPPY Valentine's Day from Emma to you!

I always love to decorate for holidays but, seriously, I don’t know what got in to me this time. And maybe it was the holiday or it could be the upcoming weddings in the family (congratulations to my cousin and his lovely fiancé and my brother in law and beautiful sister in law to be!!) but, I can’t help but drift back on the carefree summer nights spent in Sam’s old Ford truck with ice cream cones and long conversations about the future.

It’s so fun to look back on those dating years that seem sometimes to be so far in the past and yet not long ago at all. We really had the best time dating—spending every possible minute together, learning as much as we could about each other, and determined to have all kinds of fun, adventurous experiences together.

I remember meeting all of Sam’s family and falling instantly in love. His mom was so warm and I immediately felt comfortable and welcome in their home thanks to her. I loved how his dad was interested in old movies like me and how we had intellectual conversations together.  I especially loved joining them on Sunday nights. Sam would usually do the barbecuing while his mom prepared the rest of the meal. We would eat until there was just enough room for a warm brownie followed by a game of hearts. Sam and his brother Jake would tease their mom who would retaliate by chasing them both around the kitchen with a spatula. I loved Sam’s close relationship with his mom and it was something that really attracted me to him in the beginning. In time, I got to meet each of Sam’s sisters who he loves dearly. Sam was born several years after his three sisters so it is often said in his family that Sam was raised by four doting mothers. He loves each of them and I think being raised by a loving mother and sisters the way he was has made him very sensitive and tender hearted.

During our dating years, we spent ridiculous amounts of money on eating out. What else did we need to spend our money on?? We wanted to try every restaurant in St. George and made it our goal to try something new each week.  We liked to review everything from the service to the food to the ambience of our dining experience. We had several places that we frequented and indulged in ice cream constantly (Oh to have the metabolism of a teenager again!)

We enjoyed hiking together and visited Zion, snow canyon, and Pine Valley often. A lot of times, we would go for long walks just around the neighborhood or on a nearby trail with his dog, Emmie (who he adored). At one point, we decided we were really in to running and we would meet every morning, bright and early, for a run. We started at a mile and got to the point where we were running 8 miles together each morning! Soon after, we decided that we didn’t actually like running all that much-not before we had run a few 5k races together though. We also spent a lot of time in the gym, Sam would teach me some of the exercises he was learning in his exercise science class and then we would hang out in the sauna and sometimes split a protein shake. We most enjoyed taking a cycling class together and did so twice a week; we even attended on Thanksgiving. (This may have been why we were able to put away so much ice cream without seeing any increase in our weight! Haha)

For date nights, we built bonfires and roasted marshmallows. One time we decided cook an entire campfire dinner. Sam put a lot of time and thought into seasoning the potatoes just so and was rather proud of them (if you know him, you’ll understand). They took the longest to cook and when they were finally done, Sam carefully unwrapped the tinfoil only to accidentally toss them all into the fire. I laughed hysterically but Sam didn’t see any humor in the situation. After we’d eaten and enjoyed as many smores as we could stomach, we would snuggle up in the bed of Sam’s truck and watch the stars or sit as close to the fire as we could and talk for hours.

Sam comes from a long family line of fly fishermen but, had never shown much interest in the sport until we started dating. His addiction slowly began and he taught me how to flyfish one summer at his family cabin. We spent a lot of time fishing together, usually in Pine Valley which is closest to where we lived at the time. We went there to practice often and even though it is no longer our fishing spot as we have learned there are so many more fruitful places to fish in the area, it holds a special place in our hearts.  I learned about Sam’s endless patience as he unsnagged me from bushes and trees after just about every cast. Sometimes, Sam would pick me up in his truck before the sun was out with a piping hot thermos filled with hot cocoa in hand and we’d head to Pine Valley to spend the whole day fishing together.

We loved to go for long drives or on trips together and did so any opportunity we could find. We enjoyed a memorable trip to Salt Lake and Thanksgiving Point with my mom and siblings, several trips to Vegas both with family and friends, and especially loved vacations to Sam’s family cabin. There we fished, explored, hiked, played card games, visited Park City, and watched the 4^th of July parade and rodeo. Some of my very favorite dating memories took place in that beautiful setting.

We showered each other with extravagant gifts and grand gestures (It’s a lot easier to do that with no financial obligations!) Sam gave me the most beautiful flowers, perfume, and jewelry and I decorated his room with Eagles and Utes team memorabilia. Sam’s favorite candy is Cherryheads (Like Lemonheads but, cherry flavored.) I searched everywhere for them but, couldn’t find them! I would check the candy isle of every grocery store or gas station I would go to and always leave empty handed. Finally, I searched for them on the internet and ended up ordering him several bulk sized boxes. I was so excited to surprise him with them when they finally arrived! He had more Cherryheads than he could eat in a year and used the excess to bribe his nephews. We had so much fun surprising each other.

Speaking of his nephews—I love those boys. Each and every one of them has a very special place in my heart. While Sam and I were dating, I became pals with each of them. I loved when I got to babysit or when they would visit for holidays. I enjoyed attending birthday parties, painting Easter eggs with them, carving pumpkins, trick or treating, and more. I am sure a lot of people feel this way about they’re nephews but, honestly they were one of the selling points in my choosing to marry Sam. They are seriously special kids and I love each of them, it was an honor to become they’re aunt. (Emma is SO lucky to have such tender, kind, sensitive, and thoughtful young men in her life. She couldn’t ask for better cousins.)

I loved sharing my family traditions and even though Sam teased me for being so crazy about holidays, he secretly loved it. I always made him an Easter basket, brought him Lucky charms on St. Patrick’s day, decorated his room or truck with hearts on Valentine’s day, and stuffed the biggest stocking I could find on Christmas. He made fun of my red white and blue outfits on the fourth of July and I forced him into green on St. Patrick’s. Sam’s the kind of guy that has a hard time dressing up even on Halloween so you can imagine his dismay when I wanted to leave the house wearing bunny ears on Easter.

Sam and I did everything together. We took college classes together and met for lunch between the ones that were separate. Studied together, were in the same college ward for church, and talked or texted on the phone whenever we were apart. Every single night Sam would text me goodnight accompanied by a new reason why he loved me. “Tonight, I love you because…” And it was always different. I am honestly surprised he could come up with so many unique, yet genuine reasons. He was the best boyfriend I could have hoped for and I knew he was the one for me only months into our 2 ½ years of dating.

I was very young and Sam is a slow decision maker (to say the least) so we took our time and I am grateful. That was definitely the right thing for us. We created so many memories, such a strong, wonderful bond, and really knew each other by the time we were married.

The trail Sam took me on to propose. This was on the way up, before I knew he'd be popping the question.

Almost 5 years of marriage later, Sam is still my favorite person to spend time with. He is the one I want to be with on all of my wildest adventures and on my quiet Wednesday nights. I am so grateful for the wonderful times we experienced as a new couple, falling in love and for all of the lessons learned, trials faced, and memories made in our married life together. Every day I am grateful to have someone who understands me and loves me so completely. We balance each other so well; me with my spontaneity and optimism and him with his patience and careful nature. He is so quick to forgive and tender hearted, consistently honest and trustworthy and always patient (okay, except when he’s driving)-I learn from him every day. He laughs at my never ending quirks and enthusiastic excitement and I laugh at his forgetfulness and his inability to make decisions. Where I am weak, he is strong. Our life is far from perfect but, there is no one I’d rather have by my side through it all.

This Valentine’s day we celebrated our love on Saturday with a delicious meal at our new favorite, Benja’s Thai and Sushi. (We JUST tried it and can’t believe we waited so long!) We followed it with a short hike in Snow Canyon and a movie.(Grandma babysat Emma, thanks mom!) Sam brought home some lovely yellow and orange roses (my favorite) and on Sunday after we got Emma to sleep, we enjoyed our yearly tradition, fondue. On the Valentine’s day before we were married, my mom bought us this wonderful “fondue for two” maker and we have gotten plenty of use out of it! There is almost nothing in this world that I love as much as I love fruit dipped in chocolate. It was a wonderful weekend together.

Sam and I have blissfully enjoyed 10 years of friendship, 8 years together, and almost 5 years of marriage. I'm not saying every minute has been perfect but, I can't say I haven't had enough yet-it’s never going to be enough!

For time and all eternity.