My baby's getting big!!

Aspen had her 4 month well-baby check up today....she is getting so big! She is now 26 inches long!!! And she weighs 13 lbs, 2 oz. Since she is getting so big, I thought I'd share some of the things she has started doing:

• Yesterday she sat up all by herself for almost 2 seconds!
• She has great head and neck control and will sit up tall when held
• She rolls regularly onto her tummy and occasionally can get all the way around and back onto her back again.
• She sticks anything she can get her hands on in her mouth!
• She LOVES to watch us eat and she'll open her mouth when we are eating.
• She sits in her high chair and plays with toys on the tray while mommy cooks
• She has gotten to where she will not go to sleep without a snuggly blanket and a soft toy
• She is laughing ALL the time!
• She has just discovered her feet! She will analyze them and tug at them....she hasn't yet gotten them into her mouth...but I have the camera ready and waiting for the moment!!

Hmmmm....there's lots more, but these are the newest things!! :-)

Picking apples!!!

Yesterday Aspen and I went with "Aunt" Carrie to her friend's apple orchard and picked two bushels of apples! It was a lot of fun....and Aspen was happy the whole time! Here are some pictures of it! :-)
This is the apple she picked off the tree! :-)

And I just like this picture, so I thought I'd throw it in there! Its from Wednesday. :-)

Tag! 8 things about me!

Ok, so Emily "tagged" me and I had no idea what on earth that meant, so I had to ask her...and now I feel dumb! I can't even think of 8 interesting things about me....I'm a terribly boring person....but I'll give it a try! :-)

1. I LOVE snow! I love to play in the snow....snowboarding and snowshoeing are two of my favorite things to do....been snowboarding for more than 10 years.....just took up snowshoeing last winter. I taught Malo how to snowboard when we were dating....now he's WAY better than me. I love snowball fights. I love making snowmen. I love catching snowflakes on my tongue. I love rolling in the snow. I love watching the snow come down. I love night hikes in the snow. I love to kiss Malo when its snowing. I love eating snow. I love playing with my dogs in the snow. I love snow.

2. This is something I think MOST people who know me even a little bit know....but cheese is my favorite thing on earth. Seriously. I eat cheese almost everyday (which would seriously explain the shape of my body) and no, it does not "stop me up." My body is used to it. I always have cheese in my house. There is always enough money for cheese...and cheese makes everything better. If I had to choose between putting gas in the car and having cheese, cheese would win. I like ALL cheese.

3. I love to run. I really do. I used to run every day, but I have gotten so incredibly lazy over the last several years that I rarely run anymore. And I am so out of shape now that it makes me angry to run because my competiveness comes out again and I can't keep up with what I feel like I should be able to do. But I truly enjoy it and I always feel so good after I do it. I should run more. I should go run now.

4. When I was in middle school, I put toilet water in my friend's water bottle and she drank it. I still laugh about that today. I think that makes me a bad person.

5. I used to be a really great stalker.

6. I hate putting clothes away. Washing and drying clothes is fine, but getting them put away is something I hate. So often I have piles of clean clothes all over. By often I mean always; I always have the piles....its so ridiculous.

7. I have a little bit of social anxiety. I was so shy when I was younger that I couldn't even play soccer. I wanted to play soccer and I did one season in 2nd grade, but I was so shy and I didn't want anyone to look at me, so I avoided being anywhere near the ball. My 3rd grade teacher told me I was too quiet and I had to go to speech therapy to make my little voice "roar like a lion" as Mrs. Singer said. I still to this day don't like to be in front of people (so its odd that I have a career in which I am always in front of people and people are always looking at me, but for some reason, I do okay in those situations.). I get really nervous to teach or talk in front of people. My hands sweat and shake when I speak in church. I have a hard time approaching people and talking to them without getting nervous. I would definitely consider myself shy, with moments of outgoingness (is that even a word?!?!!?). Sometimes I overcompensate by talking too much....rambling and so on...and I can tell when I'm doing it, but I don't know how to stop! I have to work REALLY hard to get out of my shell.

8. I have very random thoughts and actions. I don't know why. I do and say things that are just random and I think a lot of people think I am just plain off. But its just who I am. :-) I want to eat some cheese right now. I think I will.

I am the most boring person on earth. I guess I tag people now....so since CO friends have already been done....I'm gonna ask Ess and Ally to tell us all 8 things about them! And of course, I need to post a picture of Aspen! So here she is:

Malo, me, Aspen, Buddy and Daisy took a drive on Saturday to look at some of the changing trees. It was really fun, but we lost track of time and were gone most of the day. The dogs loved the ride and the view from the back of the truck and Aspen did so good. I really love fall; it makes me happy. Tonight I made cheddar chowder because it felt like fall and what better way to celebrate than to eat yummy, cheesy chowder!! Mmmmmm.....its so good.

And here is a picture of Aspen playing in her daddy's blanket. :-)

Autumn is AWESOME!

I LOVE love love love LOVE Fall! I love the crisp air, the beautiful colors, the smells, the beginning of the holiday season....the precurser to snowboarding season....the memories and the future memories to be made. I love to kiss my hubby in the fall (well, all year, but there is something romantic about autumn time). I actually wanted to get married in the fall, but my darling husband refused to wait that long (which gave us a 2 month engagement! crazy man!). But anyway, this is just a great time of year. (I do love the other seasons, too....its just that today is the official start to fall!).

That's it! Well, I could ramble on and on, as we all know I do, but I won't. I'd rather go sit outside and enjoy the beautiful fall evening with my family! So off I go!

Aspen loves fall, too! :-)

Happier Post

I decided that since I was so negative in my post yesterday, I need to really count my blessings and be more positive. So here are some wonderful blessings I am thankful for in my life (in no particular order):

MALO: Malo is the best husband; he is a kind and loving man and a phenomenol father. He is also creative and has so many wonderful ideas and plans. With him, I know that anything is possible. He is a really handy man and can do pretty much anything he puts his mind to. I feel so grateful to be married to him and of course there are struggles, as in any marriage, but he is amazing and I love him so much. When I count my blessings, he is always right up there.

ASPEN: No expansion needed, really. She is the most amazing blessing that has ever come into our lives. I know she was meant to be in our family....and the 5 years it took for that to happen is 100% worth waiting for. I often just stare at her and my eyes fill up with tears because I am so grateful for her. I want to be a better person just so I can be a better mom to her. Malo and I both love her so much; our lives are so much more complete with her. Not a day goes by that we do not thank our Heavenly Father for her and for trusting us with this little one in our home. She is definitely the greatest....and one smile from her can make all of my worries subside for awhile. I love this little one more than I ever knew it was possible to love....and I have a lot of love!! :-)

MY FAMILY: Not just Malo and Aspen and my wonderful pups, but the rest of my family...my mom, my brother & his family, my sister. They have always been an amazing support in my life and they are simply the best!

THE GOSPEL: Where would any of us be, really, without our Heavenly Father's love and without the Atonement. I am so grateful we have the truth and that we have our Savior, Jesus Christ. I could go on and on, but the bottom line is that I know Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love me and I feel incredibly blessed to have that knowledge in my life.

MY FRIENDS: I have been blessed throughout my entire life with wonderful friends. Friends I know I can call anytime for anything, friends I know love me and would do anything for me. Friends that I am willing to do the same for. I am not sure why I have been blessed with such great friends, but I appreciate them all!! :-)

FREEDOM: I am so grateful for the freedoms we enjoy in this company. I know a lot of people are frustrated with the US right now, and I know many of our own citizens are bad-mouthing our country and our leaders and by so doing, are bad-mouthing the very things that give them the freedom to do so. I get so frustrated with people who complain and talk about how they hate being an American, well, then move to another country where you will be killed for voicing those opinions. But wait....that could take me on a whole new soap box, so I'll stop. But I truly feel blessed to live in a free country and there is nowhere else I would rather be.

OTHERS: This post I just realized could go on and on forever....because once you start counting your blessings, you realize how good life is and how much you have....even if its not temporal or tangible things, but what is most important in this life are really what I call the 5 "f"s: Faith, Freedom, Food, Family and Friends. :-) But here are just a few more things I am grateful for....

• Sunshine!
• Rain!
• Snow!
• Thunder and Lightning storms
• Changing Seasons
• Food, especially cheese
• A body that works (for the most part!)
• A career that I love (even though I don't want to be working *right now*)
• A beautiful house that is truly a home
• Books to read
• The Scriptures
• Pictures/scrapbooking
• Animals
• Water
• The mountains
• The ocean and beach
• Appliances that work
• Music

OKay.....I feel better than yesterday, now I will stop! :-)

Sad and sucky

So we have this little rental house (it was our first house and I loved it because it had this great little "hobbit room" that I used to go up in and scrapbook, etc.) and our friends had been renting it for a couple of years. Well, the hubby got a new job and they needed to move up closer to his work and so we've been paying two mortgages for a bit now....which consequently means that I have to work more than I want to (which isn't hard at all because I don't want to work at all....I want to be home with my Aspen). Today was especially hard because I normally will only accept short jobs when Malo can be home with Aspen or all day jobs if and only if my sister can stay with Aspen. Well. I accidentally took a job for today thinking it was a day my sister could watch her...and it wasn't. So...luckily two very dear friends took turns watching her today...one friend came over at 7:15am and watched her until 11:00am when my other friend came and picked her up and watched her until Malo could pick her up at 3pm. Sounds pretty ok, a little hectic, right, but reasonable.

Well, Aspen had other plans. I got up at 5am so I could make Malo's lunch, put together a diaper bag for my friend when she picked Aspen up, set out some clothes for the baby to wear , made up a bottle for her so she could quickly eat when she woke up and then hopped in the shower and attempted to get ready before Aspen woke up.

At 6:15 on the dot, I hear a screaming, so I go into her room and she is ready to get up...no big deal....until I pick her up and she has not only peed through her diaper and pajamas, but clear through the bedsheets. So I pick her up and lay her down to change her diaper.....and she has an explosive poopy diaper....all over....ALL OVER everything...including my clean work clothes I had just put on. So I am thinking this is a sign that I should NOT be working, but whatever, I've committed, I have to do it.

On to phase two, I quickly change into some more clean work clothes and feed her...not only does she take her sweet time eating, but she spits up on my 2nd shirt of the day....again, a sign I shouldn't be leaving her right?!?! Well, by this time, I haven't even brushed my hair yet and its slowly drying in wretched knots....but I need to finish feeding her....so I do and then I go change AGAIN and pull the brush through the mangled mess called my hair....and then its time to go.

So I leave for work, all the while hoping that my baby will be fine (knowing she will because I fully trust my friends who watched her) and feeling guilt that I am leaving her. So I am driving up I-25 putting my makeup on and bawling my eyes out....mascara running down my face as quickly as I can put it on while driving...it sucks. It really really sucks. I am not doing that again.

that's the end of my ranting and raving for today.