A break from your previously scheduled vacation posts to talk about my baby

I have never, in my entire life, wished so badly that time would just stop. Or at least slow down.

Every morning I feel like I wake up to a whole new baby. These past few months, her progression has tripled. She is learning so many new things. She doesn't seem that babyish anymore. She is growing up so dang fast. When I was saying goodbye to family last week, I realized that she will be one the next time they see her. ONE YEARS OLD, PEOPLE!!! This isn't okay.

This is the stage I was so excited for. I loved having a wee little baby. I loved how small she was and how much she needed me. I loved how easy she was to take care of.  I loved that always fell asleep on my chest. But this stage is what I was waiting for. When she chooses to cuddle with me, instead of just always sleeping. When she is independent, but still loves to be held. When her personality is coming out and she is learning and exploring and experiencing. I can't explain how much I love to watch her experience life.

 I want to remember everything about the way she is right now. Her wrist and thigh rolls. Her long, skinny toes. The way her blonde hair is starting to curl. Her pouty lips. Her laugh. The way she says "dada" over and over half the day. Her weird "dinosaur noise." How fast she crawl. The way she sometimes goes too fast and one leg will slip out and she face plants. When she crosses her legs while sitting in her carseat. How excited she is when I look back from the driver's seat and she sees me in her little mirror. The way she talks to herself in the morning before I get her up. How cute her little wave is, and how she waves at herself half the time. The way she has started touching everything with just her pointer finger, instead of her whole hand.

I want to remember how proud she looks when she pulls herself up on something new, or climbs over an obstacle on the floor. How hard she laughs when people make funny faces. Her ticklish spot under her armpits. How excited she is to wake up in the morning. How cute it is when she is sitting quietly and playing with toys. The way she pushes a ball around the room and chases it. How excited she gets when the cat walks past her. The way her tongue is always hanging out of her mouth. How good she smells right after a bath. The way she puts her arms up and flaps her hands when she wants to be picked up. How cautious she is around strangers and new situations, but how sweet it is when she opens up. Her two-tooth grin that always melts my heart.

I want to remember the way she snuggles into me in very early hours of the morning after she's finished her feeding. I always stay in there much longer than I should, even though it's 5am and I am tired. I rock her as she closes her eyes. Then I stand up and let her bury into me some more. When I lay her down, I watch her move around to get comfortable before she falls back to sleep. I want to remember the way she reaches up and touches my face during those feedings. She is crazy and spastic and constantly on the move during the day. But at 5am, when it's quiet and the sun is just coming up, she is calm and she wants me. She doesn't want to be on the floor exploring, or chasing the cat, she wants to be held and cuddled and loved. I don't want to ever forget those moments.

I don't ever want to forget the life we have now. The quiet, suburban street we live on, where everyone waves hello. Our basement apartment that is always full of light and perfect for what we need right now. How often we take little road trips to visit family. Our quiet nights at home, eating dinner on the couch and watching The Office. Our long drives up the canyon, and our long walks around the city we love. Our annoying cat, who we love so much. Nathan's daily lunch visits. Our loving ward, and the callings that give us a 30 teenagers who just want to hold and kiss Sadie. Our little side-yard, and how excited we were just to have grass. Watching Nathan put Sadie to bed every night, and wondering how I got so lucky.

I don't want to forget anything.

iPhone dumpage

"Dumpage" is an awful word.

+ We like to eat dinner on our grass. Did you know we like our grass? We like our grass. Grassgrassgrassgrass.

+ Sadie has become a HUGE mama's girl. She still loves daddy and he makes her laugh the most, but she want me 95% of the time, especially when she's upset. Nathan gets sad, but I love it, hahaha. I know it won't be this way forever. She will soon learn that I set the rules, and daddy is way more fun, so I am enjoying it while I can. She has become so snuggly. I love it even more than newborn snuggles, because these ones she is choosing to give to me.

+ SHORTS!!!

+ Sometimes Sadie wakes up grumpy, and just wants to stay in her zipadee zip. I think it's adorable.

+ Then she cheers up and tells daddy all about her book.

+ Remember how I have a car and can go get McDonald's diet coke at 7am? It's the beeeeeest.

+ Bachelorette Mondays. We are soooo cool. But then we read the spoilers and are kinda not into this season..

+ Sadie and I went to my old school for the last time this school year! I love seeing my old friends and eating with my old team just like we used to do. Sadie was shy at first, like always, but then fell in love with Bustin. He is the baby whisperer. 

+ We met Nathan downtown for lunch one day, but it was so freaking windy that we just ate in the car. Very adventurous! 

+ We are eating lunch on the grass. CAN YOU EVEN BELIEVE IT?! 

Aunt Amanda bought Sadie that hat. Can you handle it? I can't. 

We found a new trail to walk, just minutes from our house. It follows Big Cottonwood River. I love where we live!!

 + Our new favorite place? STRAWS. Like a small-town Swigs.

 '

Lady getting comfy on my legs while we watch movies in bed. 

That's all, folks. 

things we've been doing

Here's a bulleted list of things we've been doing and pictures that need to go somewhere!

+ This picture is from a month ago, but it makes me laugh so I had to post it. Just me and my homegirls. 

+ Nathan's busy season is starting to pickup at work. He's super busy, but he just go to hire a full-time assistant, so he should be taking a lot of the load of Nathan's shoulders. We sure are proud of how hard he works while also being in school full time. His company is moving offices, just a few blocks away, and he took Sadie and I there on a walk the other day. He will have a big wing of the building all for his branch of the company. Yay!

+ We have some pretty awesome family members. On Madelyn's birthday, the Robisons set us this gorgeous bouquet of flowers!! They also took my favorite boys out to do a balloon release for her. It meant so much to us!!

+ Autumn and Greyson also sent us a present on Maddie's birthday. They are the king and queen of random presents, and we always get excited when they say then send us things. They didn't disappoint! This is an original painting. It's pretty awesome.

 + Lady is still having a hard time from me leaving her for a whole week when I went to California and Arizona. She's been extra clingy. 

 + Sadie has been extra face-smashy lately. She is obsessed with our faces. She loves to hit our faces, grab our noses, show her hands in our mouths, and pull our hair. It's a good thing we like her so much.

+ Last Sunday morning. Just one of my favorite pictures! Love my sleepy bums.

+ We've made HUGE progress on our yard!!!! We are so excited! Friday afternoon, Nathan, our landlord, and our bishop laid 8 thousand pounds of sod! They did the front yard, the backyard, and our side-yard. We love it!!!! The picture is of some of our side-yard. It looks smaller than it actually is. It's a really good sized space and we can't wait until the sod takes and we can play on it! We are going to put a railing up around our stairwell, and Nathan and our landlord are going to rebuild that shed back there to make it nicer and it will be for our use, which will be great. We want to have some garden boxes and Nathan reaaaally wants a small bbq. Our landlord's have a swing set in their part of the yard with a baby swing for us, so that's fun. We are just really excited to have a yard after living in apartments our entire marriage. And all our single years too!

+ Since Nathan took off work early to lay sod on Friday, he also decided to take us to lunch! Sadie loves french fries. It's a problem, but it's also so cute and I can't say no!

 + Friday night was our ward's "passport around the world" party. We have a lot of people from other countries in our ward and neighborhood, so we set up 3 stations: Hawaii, Mexico, and the Philippines. The YW/YM were in charge of the Philippines! For mutual we cooked all the food, decorated our booth, and some of the girls learned a special dance from our very own Filipino! Our youth are the bomb. Our whole ward is the bomb! It was so fun Friday night to eat awesome food, visit, and watch our youth run the booth and be awesome. 

Our resident Filipino.

The "bug-eyed ward babies" as they are called. Sadie, one day you can marry little Theo Dance. That's totally okay with me.

+ Lady loves that Sadie goes to bed early now, but this is how she stares at us if we aren't giving her enough attention.

+ Nathan just started his spring semester. He will take a break from June to August, then start back up again in September! He is loving school. It's definitely hard. I think a lot of people assume online school is a joke, but this is not the case, haha. He works for hours every night and is learning so much and building an awesome portfolio of work. He is working with his classmates and networking with his teachers and professionals. He loves that he can actually work on what he loves.

+ I am still working for Nathan's company as the travel agent lady. I like it. I am kind of a hyper-organized person and the lady who did the travel before me was kind of a mess. Nathan and I have streamlined the process. There's all kinds of spreadsheets and very organized folders. Haha, it's stupid how much I enjoy this kind of stuff.

+ Life is good around here!