FHE Swimming 1

For Family Home Evening (FHE, or family night) we went swimming in my parents pool!

There was an ongoing battle between the boys of trying to push eachother in the pool. Trey mostly won, until my Dad came along. Trey had been particularly picking on Caeron and pushing him in a lot, probably because Cam always tried to push Trey in. So when my Dad came along and flipped Kaden in Trey never suspected Cam and Dad to gang up and get him. But get him they did. haha

Hanging out with Paige on the beach step. The pool really was very cold and none of the girls really wanted to get in. =>

But we did eventually get in a little bit. And Paige loves the water, even when it is freezing, athough she extremely loves warm water =>

 

Showing Off Sunday

Thank goodness my parents church did not start until 11:00am! Paige did great sleeping and only woke up her normal one time in the night to eat and then went right back to sleep. But even with a good night and two extra hours to get ready for church (ours at home starts at 9) we were a little tardy getting there. I think it is my curse to never be able to be on time to things, no matter how hard I try or how much I plan. Oh well, such is life. =>

At church it was so fun to see my parents show off their granddaughter. They are so proud to be grandparents! It is so cute to watch! They would brag and dote and beam everytime someone commented on Paige (which was a LOT). I am so glad I have a cute baby, that was seriously one of my fears (to have an ugly baby).

When we got home from church my Mom was playing with Paige and then her other baby, their dog BJ, came up to play with them. My Mom was so excited to have both her "babies" with her!

Their dog was suprisingly good with Paige! He took it upon himself to be her little protector and gaurdian. Adorable! My parents had also bought a stroller for Paige (and a porta-crib) so they could always have those things at their house for when grandkids come over. So we had to try it out. This is Paige's first "big girl" stroller, the one we have we just hook her car seat onto the stroller so she has never actually sat up in it.

Cam stroller her around the house to test it out. She did very well in it, cam was a little goofy tho haha.

We Made It!

From our pit stop in Vegas we drove about 3 hours to my parents house. Paige was great again, up until the Cahone (is that how you spell it?) Pass. I think she had just had enough of being in the car. But she had her little moment then fell asleep and slept from about Rancho Cucamonga to Claremont (20ish mins with the traffic we had). When we got to my parents house we were greeted with one of the best treats EVER! A giant cookie cake from the Great American Cookie Company! Yummy!

Everyone was so excited to see us, and especially Paige! She is truely one loved little girl!

The boys and my Mom had bought some books for Paige as a "welcome to our house, we love you" present. So nice! And the boys wasted no time each picking a book and reading it to Paige. They are such good uncles!

I am so glad we made it, and especially glad Paige did so well on that long drive! Horray for vacations!!

Paige's First Vacation! Driving There

Vacation Time!! Sat Aug 14th Kalyn Paige and I drove down to Utah! We left our (Mine and Jared's) apartment ten minutes til 7:00am. Early.

Paige did GREAT in the car! She loved to look out the windows and also sing along to the songs Kalyn and I were singing! SO CUTE!!! I just about melted when she sang along to a song for the first time! Thats my girl!

We had a pit stop in Vegas to have lunch with my cousin Cera!! It was perfect timing because Paige was starting to get tired of the car (who could blame her after 5 1/2 hours?) and it was great to get here out and moving around for a couple hours. It was wonderful to see Cera again! The last time I saw her was a couple weeks before my wedding, 2 years ago!! Far too long! =>

Cera is about 29 weeks pregnant with a little girl, Paisley! Paige and Paisley were already just hanging out and chilling together! => So Cute! I hope they are able to play together when they are both older!

Thanks for meeting us for lunch Cera!! I just LOVED seeing you again!

Now onto the home stretch of driving! Claremont here we come!!

Jared Working

Jared started a window cleaning/pest control/christmas light buisness last year. At the height of his buisness he had 8 (or 9, I dont really know) technicians working for him and 4 sales men selling for him. He and his buisness partner decided they wanted to clean and spray some accounts too (more money). I am not always a fan of his work, but he really enjoys running his own buisness and "building and empire out of nothing". While its not an empire yet, he has really built it well. Although there are LONG and ridiculous hours he has to put into it I can support him..... until I get a picture message like this: (sent to me from his buisness partner)All the caption read was "Your husband". Mind you, they use a three story ladder. So this is a very tall window. Great Jared, way to be so safe. => I told him if he falls, gets hurt, or dies, he is sooooo grounded! haha I just love my hard working man!!

Monday Night....Long

Last night was a long night! It started with a family dinner! My Gram and Pa drove up from CA to attend one off their nieces wedding, but while they were up here they wanted to have dinner with all the fam! It was so much fun! I love it when everyone gets together, and it was even better because Gram and Pa were there too!

This is the second time they were able to meet Paige! And she did great! She was smiles all around! Even caught a little half smile on camera! Oh I love seeing my grandparents with her!

We all went to dinner at Golden Corral. They gave us our own private room, which was great because all the kids could run around as they pleased! Again Paige did great!

She wanted that phone so badly! It was quite amusing to see her try and get it.

Paige was just a bundle of awake/talkative/happy cuteness! We could all tell she wanted to be one of the "big kids" running around. She would just stare them down and pump her little legs! I can not wait until she is older! I love to see her learn new things!

After dinner (we left the restaurant at 10pm) I went home, obviously. And right as I parked and was walking the 2 steps to the back of my car to get Paige my Mom called. She said Kalyn had been taken to the emergency room by one of her roommates and Mom wanted me to go down and see whats going on. So I called Jared (he was not at dinner he had to work, and now he was back in our apartment) and he came down and we went to the hospital. I will leave the details to a later post. But eventually she got released and came back to my apartment to stay the night at 2:00am. Thankfully Zach and Pa were so willing and able to help out and Jared and I were able to go to our apartment and put Paige to bed around 1:00am. Thanks so much Zach and Pa for all your help!! Needless to say, it was a LONG night! But Kalyn is feeling better and we are all safe and good. That was our Monday night......eventful.

Motherhood: An Eternal Partnership With God

I LOVE this talk by Elder Holland. I don't know when it was given or where (I am working on fining it out) but I had to post it, mostly so I could watch it whenever I need to. =>

Long Drive

Friday was an eventful day, full of events from morning to night! The morning I took Paige to Beehive Clothing to meet the ladies I worked with. She did great and the ladies just loved her! That afternoon I went to craft day with my family. Jared was working and went to the temple. That evening was Jared's friends wedding reception. The invitation said it was in the Ogden area so we figurged we would go (we didnt go to the wedding itself because it was in Idaho Falls). The reception was from 6:30-9:30 and we left at6::15, figuring we would get there around 7ish. While driving thru Salt Lake there was a double rainbow! I tried to take pictures of it but the second one was not coming out in the pictures. I was wearing tinted sunglasses so I decided to put them over the camera (thinking of them as a filtered lens). It worked better, suprisingly! The picture was tinted red/brown tho so I had to do some editing to make it normal hues. Here is the finished product:

You can see the one rainbow really well and to the left of it you can slightly see the second one! So cool!! Can you just imagine how much better an actual filtered lens would be!?! Well anyways, back to the story. We ended up driving past Wolf Mountain and Eden! We got to the reception right around 8:45pm. What a long drive! The funny part was we got there, were the last ones thru the recieving line, it started to rain/thunder/lightning (the reception was outside) so we said our "congrats" got in the car (they ended the reception early due to the weather) and drove the 2ish hours back home! We were not even there for 10mins!! haha What a time! But in the over 4 hours of driving Paige did great! It makes me more at ease for my trip to CA this weekend!

And again last night we drove a long ways, up to Layton to go to my aunt Heather's for dinner. Paige did GREAT again! And she fell asleep in Heathers port-a-crib! Which was another thing I was nervous about, to see if Paige would sleep anywhere other than her crib. She does! Wahoo! Now I am even more excited to go down to CA!! =>

Holding Paige

At Nikkis house yesterday all the cousins got to play together! It is so fun to see all those little kids running around playing games, it reminds me of when I was little and would play with my aunts and cousins! And of course, all the girls ADORE Paige. But today there was a new one that wanted to always be with Paige, little Crew! He was constantly wanting to "Hold Baby Paige".

This is one of the cutest things ever! This is how Crew wanted to "Hold Baby Paige". And Paige is almost as big as Crew! He did this at least half a dozen times! He just loved it, and Paige didn't mind haha! Look at those two little people! I hope they will be great friends when Paige gets older! So cute!!

Craft Day

Today was the first craft days for the Utah Walker girls! We all (Jen, Nik, Linds, Kalyn, Myself and kids) gathered at Nikkis house and did some craft! It was so much fun! Some Mod Podged wodden things (letters, tags, frames), some made headbands, and I made flowers for my wreath!

I saw a wreath like this on a craft blog over a month ago and I fell in LOVE! I could not stop thinking about it! So I finally did it! I think it turned out cute, but not as cute as the one on the blog, probably because this was my first attempt at anything like this. But I am still so proud of it and love it!

I have really liked learning how to make all different kinds of fabric flowers, and even tweaking them to make them my own!

I am slightly addicted to craft blogs (ok, maybe big addicted) and I LOVE to make things! I can not wait to make another one of these! I already have the wreath and fabric, now just to find the time/thing to entertain Paige with while I create! =>

Cream Puffs!!

One of the craft blogs look at posted a recipie for cream puffs, and as soon as I saw them I just had to have some! So, I made them! I am so proud of myself! I am becoming a little chef! haha Ok, there is still a ong road to being a chef, but at least I'm starting it haha.
Look at those cute little dough balls!! I borrowed a melon scooper from my aunt Lindsey and it work like a charm!!

There was a slight, ok HUGE issue with the cream. It was dang thick! The recipie said to squirt the cream into the puffs with a cake bag and tip. Luckily I had some! (My in-laws gave me a sweet cake decorating set for my birthday! Thanks again Millers!! =>) (and yes, I did open the present before my birthday. I just couldnt help it! =>) But the cream was so think it broke the frosting bags, no matter what tip I used! It was just way thick! Jared had the idea to try one of his food syringes from his surgery days. It worked like a charm but it took forever to load! => You can see in the picture, the broken bag, blown out cream, and the process of loading the syringe.

And this is how they turned out! They actually look like legit cream puffs! I am so proud! haha. At first they tasted really egg-y, but after we chilled them it got better, and they even tasted better the next day. I have discovered I really like making cream puffs, maybe I will do it again =>

Oh My Dear California....

I stand by my conviction, California is the best state there is! The weather, the beaches, the mountains, the deserts, the attractions, the climate, etc.... you could not get anything better in a state! But, as perfect as this state is there is a MAJOR problem!
There are not smart and dishonorable people running it!!
Latest example: Prop 8 overturned, AGAIN! If you do not know what Prop 8 is, let me enlighten you a little (very little). Prop 8 uses california's constitution to ban gay marriage. And a little more background... CA voted a few years ago gay marriage and the state decided that marriage is between a man and a women. Then the judge overturns it, making gay marriage legal, even tho the people of CA voted against it. Fast forward to last year. The proposition was brought to a vote again, and AGAIN the CA public voted, that marriage is between a man and a woman. And what happens today? A judge overturns it, AGAIN!!

Now, it is a not a little known fact. I am AGAINST gay marriage. Marriage is between a MAN and a WOMAN! That is the way God designed it! Now this is not a post to become all political, and if you want to know more about the nitty gritty details I encourage everyone to go read about it. I just have to voice my EXTREME disappointment in this judge. He is ruining, yes ruining the perfect state!!!! Obviously the people don't have a voice and dont know the "right" thing, because TWICE a judge has overruled the peoples vote. Stupid Judge! He is destroying my perfect state! California I love you! Sorry for all the dumb going on there!

And this is a link to the official statement of the church: LDS Official Statement

More Pictures

I told you, A LOT of pictures. I couldn't resist posting these too! =>

Those CHEEKS!!!! Oh I just can't get enough!!

She was smiling and laughing, but alas, the we were not quick enough on the camera!

Paige and I have the same color hair! She is my daughter! haha Everythign else might be Jared but hair, all me haha jk

Its Super Paige to the rescue! You know, sometimes its very fun having a baby! haha We sure love you Paige!!

Pictures

Sunday was a day of pictures! And I just had to post some, mainly for the grandparents. =>

Paige makes the funniset faces sometimes! We just LOVE it!

She is smiling a whole lot now! I have to say, it is the CUTEST smile I have ever seen!! I have yet to catch a huge, good smile on camera (and believe me, at least 4 different people have tried) but this was a cute little one I got! => She sticks her tounge out in some smiles! Adorable!

When I look at Paige I see Jared. How can you look at this picture and tell me otherwise? I love it! I love that we have resemblance in our offspring! =>

We just love our little one!

Sunday

Today Jared and Paige has some way cute moments that I was able to catch on camera!

The first one is this cute nap! When we got home from church I went to make some food and Jared was playing with Paige. It got quiet so I went to go see what was going on, and I found them both asleep! How cute!!! They just tuckered echother out! =>

Later that afternoon Jared was "training" Paige to sit up. So funny! But she is gettign really good at sitting up. She can't do it by herself on the floor yet, but she can sit by herself on Jared's hand. And she can sit for a good amount of time with a little support behinf her (like pillows.)

For some reason Paige refused to sleep until 11:30 that night. Part of the time she was up JAred was playing a game on his IPad. Paige was entranced by it! She could not take her eyes off the IPad, so cute! =>

And yes, she did go thru 3 outfits in one day! Believe me, thats nothing compared to some days haha.

Reading

I love to read! I truly think books are one of the greatest forms of entertainment. The thing is, I do not read often. I do not read "ok" books. You can call me a book snob. If I am not in love with, immediately sucked into, and entranced by a book the first time I pick it up, I can gaurentee I will never pick it up again to finish it. But if I come upon a book that does tickle my fancy I become engulfed. That book consumes my life, and I do nothing else but read that book. And when I am not reading the book (because there are things in life you HAVE to do that you can not read while doing) all I can think about is the book. That being the case, I finish books in a matter of hours, and if a really long book, days. I can honestly say I have never read a book over a week. I will even sacrifice sleep to finish the book. And with that snobbiness, it is a rarety for me to read (BIG book snob here).

In my relationship with Jared (Jan 2008-Aug2010, over 2 1/2 years) I have only read 3 (technically 6) books: The Twilight series (finished all four in 3 1/2 days, Jared and I were engaged), Babywise (finished less than a day, two weeks after Paige was born. A book about baby sleep patterns, not really for entertainment), and Austenland (finished matter of hours, mostly because I promised my sister I would read it but then ended up being REALLY entertained by it). Thats all. You would think being the book/reading lover I am I would have read more. Nope. Nothing caught my interest enough to read/finish.

With that little background information on me let me bring you in on my thoughts today. I started thinking about the scriptures in reference to my state of mind about reading. I read my scriptures, but honestly (confession time!) its more of a "I'm reading because I'm supposed to" instead of a "I really can't wait to pick up my scriptures and read them some more!!" Yes, now it is known how unrighteous and medeocre I am. haha. But I got the desire today to change my attitude about scriptures. Why can't they consume my life as much as a good book does? They are the best book in the world afterall. When I read a good book, everything comes secondary to that book, and I try to think of every possible moment I can read it. Reading my scriptures I do for the minimal amount of time I deam necessary, and most of the time they are not the top priority and therefore get pushed to the last minute. Bad I know.

My new goal is to make scriptures a more desired and overtaking part of my life (but in a good, normal way). I wil not go to the extreeme I tend to go when reading a book, I will just try to go partway there, and try and engulf myself more in them. Afterall, I was thinking about when I read Austenland (last week) and realized how much of my day to day activities I did without and replaced with reading that little book. That was not a big book, or even a tough read, not even taking up the entire day. I could totally rework my activities to fit more scripture time in. =>

My new goal, (and the point of this post was to get this goal out 'there' so I am somewhat more accountable for it), is to finish the Book of Mormon by my birthday (the end of the month). I am going to start from where I already am (just starting Jacob) and finsih the entire book. I know I can (I read the last Harry Potter in 1.5 days for goodness sake). So here it goes: sifting my life so that some activities fall out, some get toned down, and to replace that time with better more engulfing scripture reading! =>

I told Jared my new outlook/goal and he was the one that came up with the end of August deadline. He also thought it would be fun if I challenged those who read my blog to try and do the same. Finsih the Book of Mormon by the end of August, or another time they think a good challenge for them. I think thats a fun idea! So I CHALLENGE each and every one of you: Take a look at your life and see what can be "rearranged" to fit more scripture reading in. And see if you can finish the Book of Mormon by the end of August, or whenever your desired goal is, but make it a bit challenging. (Yes, even you non-members => Love you guys!) I think it would be a fun and wonderful challenge to put yourself thru! (hey, I'm doing it!) And the best thing about the scriptures, when you finish, turn it over and start again! => Reading never hurt anyone! haha =>

I would love to hear if you are doing it and what your goal is! And I will let you know of my progress! => If not for you, for me, to give me some more motivation to do it. Now, get to reading! => haha

Baby Headband

I made another craft today! Wahoo! I have been wanting cute headbands for Paige but I just havent had the drive to pack up Paige and take her to the store to find some. haha So I decided to try my hand at making one.

I saw a way cute one on a craft blog, but it was for adults. I decided to try and tweak it and make it for a baba/kid.
I like it a lot! And I think I will try making one for me! =>
Since Paige can't/doesn't wear hard headbands, and I don't have any "extra" babay headbands I had to come up with a way to make it work. I took a hair tie and sewed it onto some ribbon. That way it can be adjustable and grow it Paige! I think it will work pretty well!
I am kindof in love with this headband right now. => All I have to do now is find or get an outfit that matches. haha

Marking Her Territory

I have come to the conclusion that it is natural instinct, both animal and human, to mark your territory with bodily fluids. => Paige will spit up on you if she likes you (yes, i think its because she likes you and feels comfortable with you and not just because you are holding her. haha, sometimes =>) She has ejected her bodily fluids on many people but none as much as myself, Jared and Kalyn. Kalyn and I are the only ones who have been graced with the honor of Paige's poop => (me twice in the last week alone) haha. And last night, Jared had a VERY close call with the spit-up.
Just a stitch to the left and Paige would have hit the jackpot haha. I'm not gonna play this down, it was HILARIOUS!! And Jared was grossed out by it yet amused haha And no, he was not holding her upsidown or anything. This girl just has remarkable aim and projectile spit up.

And look at this baby, doesn't she just have "guilty" written all over her face?

Jared and I are officially property of Paige, and we got the loads and loads of bodily fluid soiled clothes to prove it. So just a note to all, if Paige wants to claim you, there is no stopping it. No matter how hard you try or how prepared you think you are. =>