I Want It That Way

As mentioned before, we had a grand ol' time housing Reed and friends, Clay, Brandon, and Tanner, for a week while they attended EFY.  These boys were so charming and fun, I could have kept them forever, other than the obvious impending move, but you know what I mean.  These four boys, along with the addition of two more friends, put together a lip sync for the talent show.  Unfortunately they were cut from the show since the judges thought a One Direction lip sync would be better, but the boys still put on a performance for their adoring fans in the parking lot one night. Check it out!

Joys of moving

Well, after a summer of being in limbo with some goods in Logan and some in Riverton, we finally moved. Here are a few of the finer moments during our last week in Logan:

We housed Reed and 3 of his friends during the last week before the big moving day. Luckily all 4 of the boys were pretty laid back and didn't mind staying in a house with nothing on the walls and boxes everywhere. We had so much fun with them!

Our stairs turn too tightly for our queen sized box spring to make it downstairs in any logical manor. As such, the window in out nursery had to be cut out in order to move our box spring. The maintenance guys thought they new better than the previous landlord and tried several different approaches before realizing that they would, in fact, have to cut out the window. I secretly enjoyed watching them struggle.

 

With Faye's room a mess from the window adventure, she wound up taking her naps in our recently emptied wash closet.

Our dvd player decided to break during all of this crazy, so Faye found new means of lounging as she watch her movie on the laptop.

Post move Faye still finds ways to have fun. Who knew packaging peanuts were the coolest thing ever?

Thanks so much to everybody who helped us move!We couldn't have done it without your help.

One Year Old

Happy Birthday to Faye!  Amidst all the birthday fun, she and I took a walk and tried to take some birthday photos.  Unfortunately, it's hard to take photos of a toddler when there's only one adult.  Faye's just too curious and too quick to sit still for very long!  Luckily we got a few shots this morning.

The stroller was my downfall today. Every time I tried to get Faye to stand by the wall, or by the lamp post, or buy the chalk drawings she'd run over to the stroller and try to push it.

 She wasn't too happy with me when I tried to pull her away from the stroller.

I can't believe how much she's grown this past year!  I love this girl so much.

At one year Faye is cruising!  She is a fast little runner considering how short her legs are.  She's just learning to climb onto the couches and how to pull the kitchen chairs on top of herself.  Her newest fascination is blowing spit bubbles, which then turns into blowing kisses.  She's still not a picky eater and has enjoyed her exposure to peanut butter, milk, and cake (oops!  don't tell anybody that I've given her cake before her birthday).  Faye has one very sharp tooth and a second one on the way.  Though still not a great sleeper, Faye continues to be our happy little girl.

Silly Love

Every couple shows their love for each other in different ways.  I remember watching Grandma Ann sit in Grandpa Roy's lap even though they were in their 80's.  Grandma Stratford is still so in love with Grandpa Stratford even though he has passed on,  she shows her love by teaching her grandkids about the great man that was her husband.  Some show their love by bringing home flowers, others by making a gourmet dinner every night.  In our house, love is showed in ways that are a little less conventional.  Don't get me wrong, Alan loves me and cleans the house when I need help, takes care of Faye so I can sleep in the mornings, and is so supportive of all my silly ideas.  But this morning I came home from my walk to see this on the computer:

Clearly he loves me!  I love you, Alan.

11.5 Months

Well, with everybody being so sick as of late, I fell behind with my monthly photos of Faye.  Out of desperation, we finally had a photo shoot today, and we invited Holli and Paisley to join us.

Paisley is fascinated with Faye's shoes.  She has a tendency to man-handle Faye in order to reach the shoes.  I think it's great fun.

 Paisley was fun to take pictures of.  Even though it was nap time she still gave me some great smiles and was content to sit and watch everything.

 Of course my child was the uncooperative one, but I still got a few good shots that show her personality.

Faye is always exploring her surroundings and anything she can get her hands on.  Her curiosity is so fun to watch.

Somebody was very grumpy by the end of our adventure, she's actually yelling in this last picture.  That's my Goofy Girl for you!  Thanks for the adventure, Holli!

July 4th, 2012

After a late night of fun with fireworks, we set out early to enjoy more of South Salt Lake's festivities and participated in their first annual 5k!  Mom, Heidi, Ryan, Reed, Alan and I each participated in the race.  Alan walked the race with me since it was a bad day for breathing, but we still had a great time.  Mom was the first woman to cross the line, unsurprisingly, and Reed finished in 4th overall, which is amazing considering this was the first 5k he actually raced. 

Faye had a great time in the stroller, too.   After the race we played on the playgound, had breakfast at Dee's, then claimed a spot along the parade route.

Alan and Reed tried to get in a nap while they could.  I think Alan wound up sleeping through most of the parade.

 Heidi, Mom and I ran around with our cameras pulled out.  Big surprise there!

Decked out in our race gear still.  So patriotic.

 It was fun trying to teach Faye to get excited about picking up candy.  She was happy to sit with a piece in hand and watch the neighboring kids chase candy down, though.  

After the parade, and once everybody cleaned up a bit, Alan and I headed back up to Cache Valley to spend the rest of the day with Sharon and Kelly.  Luckily the rest of the day was pretty low key; it was Alan's turn to be throwing up and Faye seemed to be pretty worn out from all the excitement.  We still had a good time, though!  Happy 4th of July, everybody!

Fireworks

This year my family decided to start some new traditions for the 4th of July.  So, rather than working from 4:00PM on the 3rd until Midnight on the 4th, we had a very leisurely celebration and were able to visit both the Dudleys ad the Johnsons.  

Alan, Faye and I left Cache Valley at 2:00 and headed for my parent's house.  As we came around the north end of Salt Lake Valley we were greeted by a tall pillar of smoke coming from the Timanogous area.  Unfortunately another fire had started in Alpine.  This is our view from Mom's kitchen window:

Terrifying!  Luckily the National Guard was able to respond quickly and soon had the fire under control.  On the lesser scale of worries in the world, this meant that the air quality would not be too great for the next day or two due to the smoke.  However, I was determined to enjoy our adventure whether or not I could breathe.

We started off our patriotic celebration by attending South Salt Lake's Firework show!  My sister, Heidi, has worked for South Salt Lake for a few years now and it was nice to be able to support her city.  SSL put on quite a show before the actual fireworks.  Mom, Heidi, Alan, Faye and I enjoyed several '70s revival bands, as well as the SSL Firemen, who really had some musical talent! We arrived around 6:00 and had several hours to kill before the firework show started.  Luckily, Mom and Heidi put together a beautiful picnick for us!

Alan made a small "fort" to provide some shade by draping an extra blanket over the diaper bag and picnick basket.  Good thing, too!  Temperatures were sitting at a solid 100 degrees for us. 

Faye was over heated, so Mom and Heidi searched for an umbrella to provide more shade.   They returned with an umbrella, ice, Styrofoam cooler, bubbles and a squirt bottle!  Now the party was really starting for us.

We spent quite a while teaching Faye to use the squirt bottle and squirting each other.  I'm amazed at how well that worked with bringing temperatures down.

 

Heidi is a great aunt.  She played peak-a-boo with Faye for extended periods of time, danced with her to songs of the Bee Gees and Doobie Brothers with Faye, and even shared her PBJ with Faye.

 Alan found entertainment in shooting off the lids from water bottles. 

The Fireworks didn't start until after 10:00, so we had to get creative with ways to keep a tired, hot baby entertained.   Luckily a neighboring family had two toddler girls who happily shared their light wands with Faye. 

When the fireworks started, I was anticipating to have a tired baby react to the loud noises with tears, but, to my surprise, she was fascinated by them!  Faye handled the loud sounds better than Alan did!  What a delightful treat. 

 

**** With the smoke from the Alpine Fire, laying on open grass, having a lot of dust kicked up from folks walking over the baseball and high temperatures, I was really struggling with my breathing which soon turned into extreme nausea.  I'm not entirely sure why my asthma makes me nauseous at times, but by the end of the night I had lost my dinner.   I still had a great time though!****

Just Another Morning

With Alan, Faye and I feeling so sick this week, we seized the opportunity to be productive as soon as we had the chance/energy/motivation.  So after I had a delightful bike ride with Kristi, Faye and I took Alan to work and then hit the town for errands.  Probably less than exciting to post on a blog, but I had so much fun playing with Faye that I just want to share a few moments.

 Faye and I gave the car a much needed wash! I wasn't sure how she would react to going through the car wash since Faye's last experience was a bit traumatizing to her.  Surprisingly, though, she seemed quite curious and fascinated with the whole process!  I couldn't help but take a picture.

 I've been dying to find Faye some hair bows that are Red, White and or Blue for the upcoming holiday.  Once my mission had been accomplished I let Faye wander around the mall.  Where was she drawn to first?  The jewelry shop, of course!  Somebody already has this shopping business figured out.

Of course we had to stop by the play area on our way out of the mall!  I was excited to watch Faye climb and run all around these giant pieces of junk food.  Unfortunately this part of our trip ended with Faye getting kicked in the head by an 8 year-old kid, but we still had fun.

Crazy Week

Sorry for the lack of posts and or updates on life lately, It's been one heck of a week:  Faye has had an ear infection since last Sunday; due to windy weather, hay bailing season, and brush fire season I haven't been able to go outside much without having an asthma attack; seeing as I haven't left the house much, I've started packing up our goods to prepare for the upcoming move; Alan's had a few days of not feeling well; and to top it all off Faye seems to have come down with a bout of the 24 hour flu.  So, after washing all of our sheets and blankets 3 times each, hopefully everybody will be feeling better this week and we'll have more stories to tell!

This picture was taken at 2:30 AM Sunday Morning right before the next wave of vomiting started.