Olive 9 Months and Collin's Preschool Graduation

My sweet girl will be 10 months this week, but was 9 months for these pictures. Dozens of times a day, I stop and think how lucky I am to have her and how much I LOVE having a girl! I think this is my favorite age so far. She's on a reliable schedule, really only fusses when she's tired or hungry and gives us smiles and happy shrieks all day long. And I seriously can't get enough of her chubba chubba thighs!!! This is my first baby with rolls and I die over them! I love kissing in her neck and blowing raspberries on her tummy after baths. 

But my absolute FAVORITE time of the day is putting her down for naps or bedtime. I turn off the lights, turn on the water noises sound machine, grab her blankie and drape it over my chest. Then she immediately lays her head onto my chest, and nuzzles her body against me, puts her left thumb in her mouth and does this little scrunchie movement with her bum... moving it up and down, up and down, like she's getting comfortable. I sing her Rock a Bye Baby, then I'm a Child of God and the whole time she just cuddles me and hums along. They are the SWEETEST moments of the day and I look forward to them every time.

She really loves soft things, blankies, and stuffed animals and anytime she comes across one, she'll lay her head down and snuggle on it for a minute. And just like Pavlov's experiment, anything soft automatically cues her thumb in her mouth.

She still drinks about 3 bottles a day... around 6-8 ounces. And in between the bottles, she likes any baby food. She's my first baby to not make gagging faces at vegetables! Go girl! She loves gumming on graham crackers or those baby cheeto puff things. Just last weekend I experimented by giving her a cheese stick and she downed the whole thing! Oddly enough, the only two times she's had raspberries, she's woken up crying in the night. Don't know if that's coincidence or tummy troubles. If you give her a whole roll or bread stick, she loves eating on it, but isn't fond of the sacrament bread. In general though, she just loves EATING. A girl after my own heart!

She goes to bed at 8pm and wakes up around 7am. She takes a morning nap around 9:30am and it's usually her best nap. She'll sleep about 2 hours. Her afternoon nap around 2pm is usually just an hour. 

She's getting faster at crawling, and will pull herself up to her knees, but hasn't quite gotten to her feet yet. Her little knees have tough, scratchy skin now that they're getting scraped up all day on the floor!

She will wave at strangers and give them smiles but does NOT like to be held by them. If her mama is nearby, she always prefers her! That is not to say that she doesn't adore her daddy though. Whenever he comes home, her face lights up and her arms are instantly out, reaching for him!

About two weeks ago, Trav got her to copy him saying, "Dada" and "Mama". Then last week, she started copying us saying "Uh-Oh!" 

She LOVES Collin. He can get giggles and shrieks out of her like no one else can! I swear they have this unique bond. In fact, for these pictures, we called him out of the house to get her to smile, because we weren't cutting it!

She has almost enough hair to pull into a little pony on top, but not quite. It is long enough to get some fluffy bed head though! She has whispies on the sides by her ears that I have to comb back. Luckily, there's no crazy mullet going on. Or super long hair on top that doesn't match the bottom. So I usually just sweep it to the side and put a head band on her. 

I'm completely OBSESSED with this babe. There really are no words to describe how much I love her. She is so much fun and has so much personality already. I can't imagine our lives without her. I'm so grateful for these sweet pictures! Thank you, Megan!!

In the same shoot, Megan took a couple of Collin and Lilly in their graduation gowns. I felt so bad that Collin missed his last day of school and graduation because of me!! :( Dang, broken back! He's had a good year at Sacred Heart. I was so grateful he had Lilly with him as his best little buddy. We carpooled all year and it worked out perfectly. Besides hating Mass, I'd say he really liked going to school there. His teachers weren't exactly my favorite ever, but it was still an overall good experience.

And how sweet is this grin?!!

This literally might be my favorite picture EVER.

Go Catholic School.

#crossyourself

Father's Day

I woke up at 5:30am on Father's Day, as sick as a dog. Boooo.

So this was the extent of Travis's Father's Day. I mustered up all my energy to make breakfast, then collapsed in bed until church. And then again after church. I'm not even sure how I made it THROUGH church! I felt so guilty that this amazing Father wasn't pampered on his special day. But that just goes to show how wonderful he really is. He kept ordering me into bed, insisting that he didn't want a nap. "I WANT to be with my kids on Father's Day. That's what this is all about!" says the Dad of the year. I was really grateful.

I love this man more than I could ever express. He's as good as they come and so devoted to our kids. We all hit the Travis jackpot. :)

My sister made a scrapbook for my Dad this year with letters from each of us kids and our spouses. This was one of the pictures she used. I love it. My shirt says it all. I was indeed blessed with an exceptional Dad. I have no idea how he's still functioning after working his tail off on no sleep for 50+ years, but he's still kickin' and running a ward to boot. Love. Him.

A little obsessed

Apparently it takes no less than 9 pictures to capture the essence of this beauty eating watermelon.

Obsessed? 

Of course.

Just don't make her mad, or she'll give ya this face!!

Ok, let's be honest. Messy, eating faces are the best things ever.

I love my new camera. I know I'm useless at fully utilizing it's skillz, but I still love using it.

 Case in point? Zebra, silk ruffles. It was rough cutting these down to just 7.

These cheeks!!!

Did I mention, she's crawling now?! Yup. Mastered that while Daddy was away in California. I love the beginning, stiff armed waddle-esk crawl.

Leah's visit, a trip to Farmington and more life in Gallup

And the Cousin of the Year Award goes to... drum roll please....

LEAH MARTINEAU!!!

Seriously though. This is the thing about service. You can tell when someone is doing it just to be nice or to do their "duty", if you will. (Duty... hehe) Ahem. But then you can also tell when someone is helping you because they WANT to and LOVE you. And Leah definitely portrayed the latter. And it brought me to tears many times that week. 

When we left Mesa, Tuesday night, she caravaned back to Gallup with us with her kids. 

Then, for the next 3 days, she did EVERYTHING! I can't even put into words how pathetic I felt. I was sitting right there, but she was the one, picking up Olive and putting her to bed. Getting her out of her crib, changing her diaper, etc. etc. ETC!!!! I kept thinking, this is so silly, I can do this!! I just had to keep rehearsing in my head, that for every day I take it easy, that's one more day towards a quicker recovery. And it was interesting that when she left on Friday afternoon, Travis took the boys out to a carnival and I insisted I would be fine to put Olive down to bed myself. Welp, that's exactly what I did, followed up by an hour or so of putting around the house, lightly cleaning and putting things away. It was honestly nothing. But I regretted it immediately afterward. I was in so much pain, I had to take a Hydrocodone just to get to sleep. And that was the first time I'd taken one in over a week. So it was almost a good experience for me to have, to realize that Leah's help really was that. Helpful! And besides being super helpful, it was FANTASTIC, just being able to chat with her. Leah and I have always gotten along. Back in our younger years when we had sleepovers, Shelley would fall fast asleep, and we'd be up til the window would start to light with the morning sun. THEN, we'd finally decide to roll over and catch some Zzz's. It makes me laugh to think about. What did we talk about for hours on end at the ripe age of 11?! I would kill for an audio tape of even a portion of our conversations. Needless to say, that's exactly how it was for this visit. But honestly, we haven't had that much time to talk since those teenager days. We were catching up on like a decade of events! And I loved every second! Thank you so much for EVERYTHING, Leah!!! I love you like a sister. Cuz let's me honest, that's exactly what you are!

Her little girl was pretty taken by Olive. She loved to feed her, her bottles and hold her.

Freeze dancing!

This picture cracks me up. Everyone take a limb!

Olive was teasing us by getting on all fours. She did this first with my mom when she was in Mesa. My mom text me a picture and I immediately replied, "Push her down, Mom!! Push her down!" :) Crawling babies are mischievous babies.

Here's that carnival I mentioned. 

We tried out a new restaurant here, first, called Don Diegos, then the men took these four to get cultured with the carnies.

And here's just some random pics of our regular 'ol glamorous life! 

Travis is so good to play and wrestle with the kids. They absolutely love him for it. We used to never see him after work because he literally changed right into his suit and was gone until late at the church. So he's started taking off work an hour early so we actually get to see him!

Mmmmm, peaches and cream! I was so excited about this, and prefaced by telling the boys this was a special treat we only got at Grandmother's house when I was little. They seemed drawn in by that, but shortly after, Collin questioned, "What kind of milk is this?! I don't like this milk. It's yucky." 

Insert my crestfallen face. Dang kids don't know a good thing when it smacks them in the face!

I hesitated to share this picture because it's damning evidence. Yes, I buy Lunchables. 

Grosssss. 

Yes, I know.

We're dealing with it. So should you.

 

Kabrin and Kreighton came to play! It was a boys kinda day!

Well, the week after Leah left, Travis had to go out of town from Thursday-Sunday. I was really scared at the beginning of the week! I wasn't sure how I could handle it. My back was still constantly sore and painful. Well, I was blessed, because Thursday was my first day with no pain!! *Hallelujah Chorus!!!* It was an AMAZING feeling! I really wasn't expecting to be free of pain at 4 weeks. I definitely attribute it to those first two weeks of not having my kids, and a third week of still not really taking care of them. BLESSED.

I still hate when Trav is out of town though. 

(He had a CE course in Carlsbad, California. It's a RUFF life. :)

I don't sleep very well when he's gone. I waited until I was exhausted, then fell asleep with the lights on and hymns playing on Pandora next to my head. I need help. 

And I was super happy I didn't forgo checking on the boys one night before bed. I literally couldn't believe my eyes. He was only half way on that night stand, with his whole lower body sticking straight out! What the crazy. Didn't know my son practiced planking. :)

My saving grace that weekend was Farmington. We drove in on Saturday morning and got some Costa Vida, then spent several hours at the Bloomfield pool with our friends, the Hathenbrucks. Then I dropped the boys off at their house for a couple hours while I took Olive shopping with me to Hobby Lobby and TJMaxx. Then finished up with some take out to Si Senor. My favorite kind of day! :) I absolutely adore Liz Hathenbruck and loved spending so much time with her, catching up. We spent the night at her house, then got to go to our old ward on Sunday! It was so fun to see everyone. I felt like I was home. :) Right after church, we headed back to Gallup, but I couldn't resist getting some Mikasa first. We were on "vacation", right? I need that emoticon face with the teeth showing.

Travis beat us home by about 20 min. Then we had a BBQ at the Shaheens because Shannon Showalter was in town, visiting. Very full day!

It's like Christmas morning sometimes around here. With no shopping, it's Amazon to the rescue! 

I may have an addiction. I always light up when I see my porch like this.

Here are my test results from that blood/allergen test I took in Mesa! I was ECSTATIC!!!! I can't even put it into words. WAY better than my birthday, Christmas and summer vacation, all in one! 

ANSWERS! FINALLY!! ANSWERS!!!

I've been dealing with stomach/intestinal issues for at least 15 years. 

I was really hoping this would tell me what my body was struggling with. 

The second I read the results my spirits plummeted. I mean downward spiraled into the depths of despair and hell!! 

My blood reacted negatively with EVERYTHING!! OK, not ANY meats. But everything else? Yup. It was on there. Eggs, cow's milk, yeast, wheat, pineapple, peas, lettuce, sugar cane, almonds, coconut, rye, corn, rice, white potatoes, coffee, and vanilla, among other things. So basically I can eat meat, seafood and vegetable. BOOO!!!!! I don't even know what I'm going to do about this.

We went out to dinner last weekend with some friends and I was just getting a kick out of the boys struggling with the babies. Just look at Steel's face! Hehe. Bron was getting a run for his money.

Trav knew how to tame Miss Olive. Let her suck on a lemon rind.

Ever want to sleep in on a Saturday? Maybe even make it a special kind of morning, if you get my drift? Haha. Well, don't. Or at least know you'll have to replace that tub of cream cheese you just bought. They've never been satisfied with the amount of cream cheese I put on their Eggos. It was finally their day to have it their way! 

YUCK! 

Half way through, even Weston admitted, "I not want this Eggo anymore, Mommy. It yucky." 

Ya don't say.