KATE AND GRAM

Well, another day in which I didn't go to the gym, or clean my bathroom, or make it to the grocery store, but at least this happened.

MOTHER'S DAY

My first Mother's Day was a dream...slept in, went to church, brunch at Blue Plate Diner, Matt cleaned the house, played at the park and dinner with Gram. I got a card from Matt and both my "girls", perfume and a hiking backpack. In short, I was spoiled rotten. I'm so glad that I get to be this little sweetie's mom. She's had my heart since the moment I met her. 

MOAB 2015 - BABY'S FIRST TRIP

Moab was the perfect getaway for Kate's first vacation. We had an "incident" on the way down that involved us walking into a gas station bathroom with serious stank and walking out with a baby dressed only in a diaper. (Our apologies to the folks at Papa Joe's Stop and Go. You're going to want to empty that trash, stat.) Oh, and we couldn't get in to the condo we rented the first night, so we had to camp at the Quality Inn, which was lovely, by the way. Wish we could have stayed there the entire time. Outside of those two small glitches, we had a great mini-trip. Kate was a champ in the car and the hiking backpack. Summer and Parx had fun too, and we did a great hike to Morning Glory Arch and visited Canyonlands. It made me want to go back sans-baby and do some more serious adventuring. We'll see what the summer holds!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Here are a few pics from one of my favorite holidays. Matt actually bought the little shark costume back in July, before the baby was even born. She humored us by wearing it for a few minutes, but it didn't last too long. Oh well. Happy Halloween!

PARX'S BABY BLESSING

Our little nephew Parx was blessed the week after Kate was born. She was too little to go to the service, but we did get her all dressed up in one of my old outfits for family pictures before the main event. Look at those long legs!

NEWBORN PHOTOS

Here's a glimpse of our beautiful baby when she was just 10 days old. Getting myself, Kate and the house ready for a photo shoot was a challenge to say the least, but luckily our photographer made it look like everything was under control.  You'd never know that the baby was crying between takes, eating about every 10 minutes, and that I was a sweaty mess. (You're supposed to crank the heat to 80 for a newborn shoot so the baby won't get chilled when she's hanging out in her birthday suit. Good for baby, not so good for mama's hair and makeup.) Kate is a mini version of her dad, right down to the long eyelashes and olive skin.

HAPPY "HULA"WEEN

It's already November, and we're just starting to feel settled enough in our new place to actually put up a few holiday decorations and enjoy our favorite season. We spent Halloween doing all the traditional activities; seasonal family photos, carving pumpkins and torturing dressing up our dog.

Don't be fooled by the look on Daisy's face. She loves Halloween just as much as the rest of us.

Carving pumpkins. Summer helped me, meaning that she sat on my lap and tried to grab the sharp end of the knife. Once we got the whole "knife is sharp" concept down, we had a lot of fun.

And, one last picture of Gram and Summer after family photos. Notice who's walking with the cane.

HAPPY EASTER!

It was a gorgeous Easter weekend in Salt Lake. We spent Sunday with my family, hunting for eggs and playing with my sweet little niece. Holidays are so much more fun when there are kids involved!

 

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY

I hope everyone had a fabulous St. Patrick's Day. Matt and I spent the afternoon taking this lovely lady out to dinner. Every year, Gram helps me make cookies for a baking contest at my office. Despite carefully planning out our recipe and presentation, we never win. This year, I promised Gram that I'd take her out to eat if we won, and guess what...we did! We used this recipe if you're interested. Everything tastes amazing when you use enough butter.

We also had not one, but two friends drop by St. Patty's treats, so I think that it's fair to say that my day was magically delicious :)

PARENTS IN THE PAPER

Shout out to ReNae and Dennis, who made the Deseret News today. Looking good guys!