The Burke's

We're expanding...

2012-01-13T16:11:00.001-08:00

Scarlett will hopefully make this shirt a true statement....

I'm sure she'll do great!

Baby Boy is Due Father's Day - June, 17 2012!

November...

2011-12-03T21:37:00.000-08:00

Well, I'm keeping up on my posting pattern pretty consistently. Does that sentence make sense? You'll have to forgive me... I feel like my English skills are deteriorating lately, and I don't have good English as it is. Pretty sad.

Sunday evening (20th) Seth and I went to Park City and stayed until Wednesday to have a little 5 year anniversary getaway. We left Scarlett with family. Park City was great, relaxing, and fun. We did some shopping, caught a few movies, ate good food, went driving around the crazy rich people's houses, etc but my favorite part was probably playing pool with Seth. It was just nice to be together, with no distractions or schedule. I didn't take a single blasted picture... and I had my camera like the whole time. Lame, I know.

So... Thanksgiving was a blast. A Lot of Seth's family was in town! Cousins from Rexburg came down and stayed with us Wed-Sunday. He has some cousins that live in Provo going to school also, AND Seth's parents were in town! So it was quite a blast. I really didn't take any photos of Thanksgiving though :( My father in law, Steve, was taking a ton so I felt like I didn't need to. But of course I didn't get copies of the photos he took before they left home to Michigan.

It was a great feast though! We played a lot of "mafia" afterward. And that is always a blast with the Oesterle clan. (Seth's mom's maiden name is Oesterle)

We also did a little black friday shopping. Oh, how I wish we had some photos of that!! I didn't do a great job at planning out a wishlist this year. But I like the deals we got, and the experience of it all. We went to wal mart. And holy. crap. It was nuts! I like going to wal mart b/c the last two years they have started Thursday night, so you don't have to get up super early. It's easy to stay up late than to wake up early.

I went looking for the 600 thread count $20 sheets right away (any size!). Got a pretty good spot, and once it was time to attack (10pm) it was MAD HOUSE. CHAOS. I was able to get in there though and start handing things to people around me who wanted some. Then I was throwing the set that we wanted (mother in law/cousins, us)... They went fast! On the way out of the store 45 min later my Mother in law said "I saw a different side of Megan tonight that I would have never imagined." Hahahaha. Oh boy. I can get determined about some things....

We got a fisher-price little people "dance and twirl" set for Scarlet, 10 bucks. it was marked down from 30 to 15, but I also had a $5 off coupon fisher price toy - and got it for TEN.

We wanted to try target at midnight... but it was absolutely insane. I thought wal-mart was crazy. But Target was nothing compared to Wal-mart. It was SO bad. the line literally wrapped around the parking lot 3 times. And at the door they had the zig-zag line along the side of the building. Then, once it was midnight, they were only letting a dozen or so people go in at a time. I don't know how long people had to wait outside, but we weren't going to hang around for that mess.

Friday was pretty chill. And that was a good thing. Saturday Seth's parents left on their 24 hour car ride home to Michigan. Seth's mom, Sandi, had been in town for about 6 weeks! It was fun having her here. I can't believe it's December, b/c she was here November just flew by. I wish Steve, father in law, could have stayed longer! But that's life.

I got to decorate our Christmas tree while the cousins went out off roading in the Nutty Putty cave area on Saturday afternoon. Scarlett slept the whole time, it was perfect. Saturday night we went to Temple Square. Goodness it was cold. But great. I am not going to lie, I was a tad disappointed this year with the lights. I feel like there have been more in the past. But I like seeing the nativity scenes and the different displays they have. And of course the Salt Lake Temple looked amazing all lit up, as always. I'm glad it worked for us to all go up together, We're a good group of cousins.

And that was our Thanksgiving week! It was a party.

2011-11-19T15:22:00.000-08:00

Seth's at work this weekend. Scarlett's currently taking a nap. And I'm doing lots of cleaning, laundry, etc. But all with such a heavy heart. And lots of tears. I am just so sad.

I have an adorable bright blue eyed nephew who is just 7 months older than Scarlett. They are the best of friends. Scarlett absolutely loves him. Loves him. She gets to go play with Preston while I work two days a week. They make each other laugh and love playing together. They also make each other cry and scream and all that other feisty toddler stuff.

Scarlett is still rear-facing in her car seat, and when we are just blocks away from getting to Preston's house Scarlett gets very excited and starting saying "Preston! Preston!". Sometimes Preston is the first word when Scarlett wakes up, and her last word before going to sleep at night. She asks where he is, and just adores him. They are such good friends. Such close cousins.

Yesterday Preston was seen by a specialist who is very positive Preston has Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. They will do a muscle biopsy in a few weeks to confirm the diagnosis. We were hoping for something curable, temporary. However, this is not curable. And I am so sad. There is no DMD or muscular dystrophy in the family history of Preston, but 35% of DMD cases are from a mutation and not genetic.

Preston was born into the greatest family, with the best parents for him. It will be okay, but it is still hard.

Precious Promises

2011-10-19T18:24:00.000-07:00

The First Presidency Message in the Ensign (A Magazine the LDS church publishes each month) this month was excellent. I hope you don't mind, I just feel like sharing it tonight.

Precious Promises of the Book of Mormon

Many years ago I stood at the bedside of a young father as he hovered between life and death. His distraught wife and their two children stood nearby. He took my hand in his and, with a pleading look, said, “Bishop, I know I am about to die. Tell me what happens to my spirit when I do.”

I offered a silent prayer for heavenly guidance and noticed on his bedside table a copy of the triple combination. I reached for the book and fanned the pages. Suddenly I discovered that I had, with no effort on my part, stopped at the 40th chapter of Alma in the Book of Mormon. I read these words to him:

“Behold, it has been made known unto me by an angel, that the spirits of all men, as soon as they are departed from this mortal body, … are taken home to that God who gave them life.

“And … the spirits of those who are righteous are received into a state of happiness, which is called paradise, a state of rest, a state of peace, where they shall rest from all their troubles and from all care, and sorrow” (Alma 40:11–12).

As I continued to read about the Resurrection, a glow came to the young man’s face and a smile graced his lips. As I concluded my visit, I said good-bye to this sweet family.

I next saw the wife and children at the funeral. I think back to that night when a young man pleaded for truth and, from the Book of Mormon, heard the answer to his question.

From the Book of Mormon come other precious promises, including promises of peace, freedom, and blessings if we “will but serve the God of the land, who is Jesus Christ” (Ether 2:12).

From its pages comes the promise of “never-ending happiness” to “those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual” (Mosiah 2:41).

From its pages comes the promise of “incomprehensible joy” to those who become “instrument[s] in the hands of God” in rescuing His precious sons and daughters (Alma 28:8; 29:9).

From its pages comes the promise that scattered Israel will be gathered—a work in which we are engaged through our great worldwide missionary efforts (see 3 Nephi 16; 21–22).

From its pages comes the promise that as we pray unto the Father in the sacred name of Jesus Christ, our families will be blessed (see 3 Nephi 18:21).

From a study of its pages comes the fulfillment of the prophetic promise that “there will come into your lives and into your homes an added measure of the Spirit of the Lord, a strengthened resolution to walk in obedience to His commandments, and a stronger testimony of the living reality of the Son of God.”¹

And from the pages of the Book of Mormon comes Moroni’s promise that through prayer, real intent, and faith in Christ, we may know the truth of these promises “by the power of the Holy Ghost” (see Moroni 10:4–5).

With other latter-day prophets, I testify of the truthfulness of this “most correct of any book on earth,”² even the Book of Mormon, another testament of Jesus Christ. Its message spans the earth and brings its readers to a knowledge of the truth. It is my testimony that the Book of Mormon changes lives. May each of us read it and reread it. And may we joyfully share our testimonies of its precious promises with all of God’s children.

The Dentist

2011-10-18T21:50:00.000-07:00

Scarlett loves "Teeth". She loves to brush her teeth, and point to her "teehh". She also loves playing w/ mom and dad's toothbrushes when she can't find one of her own.

Last Wednesday we took a family trip to the Dentist. Yay for clean teeth!

It was Scarlett's first time, they call it a "Happy Visit". The hygienist was showing Scarlett the different tools she was using on my mouth to clean my teeth, while Seth was getting his cleaned in a different room.

Scarlett was not impressed with all the tools. If looks could kill ... Scarlett was just staring that hygienist down. Priceless.

The dentist couldn't quite get a good look at Scarlett's teeth but he said "so far so good" She still has her cuspids to come in, but the dentist said they are pretty close to breaking through.

And sure enough, tonight, our poor uncontrollable crying-in-pain little girl is teething. Thank goodness for ... oral gel, Israel Kamakawiwo'ole's Somewhere over the rainbow, a rocking chair, and a mommy.

It is moments like these that I wouldn't trade for anything in the entire world. Anything.

Get your carpets cleaned more often

2011-10-18T18:13:00.000-07:00

Painfully gross carpet = Embarrassed to have visitors

Investing a little $$ with a coupon from the free ads in the mail on carpet cleaning = Visitors welcome and encouraged.

Garage Sale'ing

2011-10-18T18:02:00.000-07:00

I only went to on a garage sale kick one Saturday this summer. I loved it. I wish I had gone more. I left Scarlett and Seth at home to sleep while I went to a first few, and then they joined me. Seth about freaked when he saw my wad of cash I was ready to give to anyone for their junk. But it was a ton of One dollar bills... I felt so rich though.

We got some sweet and CHEAP toys for Scarlett, some jeans and shoes. I got this gigantic framed art piece that I only want for the frame - project in the works. At our last garage sale stop there was a lady just trying to get rid of a ton of other people's stuff for them. She pretty much said take whatever you want and give me $5. Score! I got a lot of smaller frames for projects I make as wedding/baby gifts. Like this: I made it for my cousin Mary's wedding gift. A bit of spray paint and sanding here and there.We also got a table /chair set that is just right for Scarlett. She likes having her own little chair. I want to put new fabric on it and paint it... too many projects.We got a few new games and hair bows. It was fun to find new treasures - will definitely try to go more next season.

Thursday Nights

2011-10-18T17:57:00.000-07:00

Seth has class from 6-10 every Thursday night. One of Seth's classmates, a single dad, brings her little girl over for me to watch and they carpool to class.

She's 7 months older than Scarlett, it's been about a year now that she's been coming over. They're great fun together, she's a fun little girl. We like to have our girl dance parties... I'll have to get a few photos of that. But here are a few snaps of Cheese stick & Strawberries snack time! Yay!!!

In September... I turned 29

2011-10-18T17:46:00.000-07:00

Twenty Nine. Years. Old.

It's not bad... It's just kinda weird to think I'll be in the 3-0's next time September 25th rolls around on the calendar.

Seth and I went and saw Kalai in Concert. I'm a huge fan of his music. Later in the week we went to Texas Roadhouse for dinner, my favorite! And Had some friends over to play games and blow out the ball of fire. My biggest request was brownies instead of a cake, these two are the best brownie makers ever.

Alive!

2011-10-17T12:21:00.001-07:00

Yea... I'm a lazy blogger. About every other month, you know... I'm sure ya missed me.

I just came across this blog, and I'm totally motivated to cook some yummy - EASY - recipe's this week. http://eyelikesfood.blogspot.com/ <--- Check it out!

Honestly - I really do not like to cook. I don't. But after I do I realize how easy, satisfying, and really yummy it is. I should be into these kinds of cooking blogs more - great ideas. I just never seem to have everything in the kitchen - so we end up going to the store. I think that's what I don't like most about cooking. I feel like I never have the ingredients, and I don't like the plan a head, shop for everything a week in advance. I've done it before... I just need to get in a habit of it.

Scarlett would not stop saying "eye brow" at church yesterday. She loves naming off her "face parts". . . "Tongue, teeth, eyes, nose, ears, head, eye brows!!". She also is on this screaming kick, it KILLS MY EARS! I don't know what to do!! She really doesn't get in trouble often, but this is making me want to start a "Time Out" process with her. She screams SO High and loud. I try to tell her how "It gives mommy's ears Owies". She likes the word "owie". And she makes this really sad/concerned face when she knows she has given someone else an "owie". Who knows what it was about, but she screamed like 3 times in a row during a brother's talk at church in Sacrament Meeting. I'm talking about the blood-curdling screams. Just at the right time too, when he was sharing how his a significant time in his family. Sigh... Oh Scarlett.

I made a super cute Halloween wreath, inspired by pinterest. I need to fix part of it, but I will post a photo soon!

All about Miss lately

2011-08-14T21:38:00.000-07:00

** This is an extremely boring post. Warning! If you don't care to read about the development of a toddler, its not worth reading this post!! You've been warned. **

Scarlett is just a few weeks away from being 18 months old. Why is that such a big deal!?!

Because she gets to go to NURSERY!!! at church.

We are primary teachers together, but one of us is always on Scarlett duty - which means following her around the halls. Today I took her into nursery for the last 20 minutes to see how she does, and I can tell this will be a very easy transition for her. Scarlett rarely shows signs of separation anxiety. It's one of the pro's to working part time during the week. So I am hoping she will love nursery.

She still isn't very coordinated. No... I don't see a future in sports with this little one. At least, she has a long way to go. She likes to climb on anything, which she's alright at. But she is a bit klutzy. She is quite vocal. It seems likes she's adding words to her vocabulary faster than we can track or be excited about. We talk to her like she can understand everything we say to her, or ask her to do. If she doesn't get it, we'll repeat it or say it in a different way and she usually gets it.

Scarlett's words include:

Hi
Bye (bai-bai)
Hello (when she's talking on the telephone)
Thank You (Tink Yuuu)
Juice (Juss)
Uh oh
Baba (milk - bottle, but she drinks from a sippy cup now)
Please (sign)
more (Sign)
Baby (baybee)
Dog (doggie)
Raja or Meow for Cat
I love you (Ieeuuu)
Teeth (Teees)
Eye (like hi)
Daddy and Mommy or mom
Hi dad (hi daaaah - especially on the phone.
Num nums (food)
Banana (nana)
Cracker (kha kha)
cookie (cooookie)
Peek- a- boo (Peeboo)
Shoes (shu shus)
No/Yessss - or she'll shake her head no
Hot dog (ho dog)
Book

She mimics us all the time, but these words she has used w/o mimicking - on her own throughout the day. It's really fun to hear her mimic though. If she's in the right mood she might just try to copy anything.

She's very expression-ate. She'll grunt, sigh, "uuugh", "umph" when she's trying to carry something or open something. It's pretty funny, sometimes she'll even grunt for you if you're opening something for her.

Scarlett finally has the close mouth kiss down. Which actually kind makes me sad. I'll miss the open mouth, plant face on mom's and get her slobbery kisses. She gives Seth more kisses now too. But she has to be in the mood, all on her own time.

She loves her baby doll lately. She'll bring me a baby blanket and her doll for me to wrap it up in. Then Scarlett takes it from me and paces, she even pats the baby to "soothe" it. It's adorable. She loves her accessories too. She's very observant of others accessories. Hats, sunglasses, jewelery, etc. She's such a girl!

She has her favorite drawer in the kitchen. We always find random cooking utensils at any room or space in the apartment. She likes to open her baby wipe containers so she can wash or dust off furniture, the carpet... Raja... etc.

I wish she would be able to fall asleep anywhere other than her crib or car seat, or that she'd stay asleep when we transport her anywhere. But I can't complain... she goes to sleep at 8:30 and generally wakes up between 7:30-9:00. If she wakes up unhappy I'll take milk in for her and she'll go back to sleep after a good drink. You know it will be a good day when she wakes up just talking to herself and is content staying in the crib for a few minutes. Sometimes she is extremely happy and she is jumping up and down like a mad-lady screaming. It's pretty funny.

She has started to interact with movies, she loves Tangled and the Baby Einstein videos a lot more. Ok... I know this is really getting boring now. She's doing great! She's no longer a baby, she's our little girl. It's really fun to be able to talk to her and see her trying to process it all. Often she just jibber jabbers to us, and we're left trying to process it too :)

We love our little Scarlett!

Vinyl with my cricut

2011-08-10T09:14:00.000-07:00

I got out the cricut machine last night and tested it out with vinyl, it works great! I thought I'd have to get one of the strong "deep" blades, but it cut just fine on a high pressure and slower speed. I have been thinking for months now, about quotes for our walls. This is the only one I have come up with that I wanted to do.
You like? It's just above Scarlett crib, under the loft bed.

This is my cutepie this morning. Ugh! She is so cute I cannot stand it.

IOWA (another catch up post)

2011-08-07T17:11:00.001-07:00

This is my 9th catch up post I've done today. Wow. I was behind. There is more to catch up on, I'm sure... but this is my last for today, I hope.

On July 4th Scarlett and I flew to Iowa to visit my family for a week. We used my Grandma and Grandpa Hartley's 60th wedding anniversary party as a reason to get back there.

We flew out of Provo. Yes, Provo Airport. random, right!? It is the smallest airport I could ever imagine. They just opened a flight with Frontier that goes to Denver. It was almost $100 cheaper for us to fly out of Provo than the usual Salt Lake City. It flies into Des Moines though, so it's a 2 hour drive for someone to pick us up. Scarlett was amazing on flight out there. The flight wasn't full so she got to sit in the empty seat next to us. We had a 45 min layover in Denver and then she slept the whole 2nd flight. Seriously, it was perfect. I can't believe she did so well.

My parents picked us up. I love my mom and my dad. I love going home still, and it is getting kind of different since I have a daughter of my own... Life has changed a ton since I lived in my home 10 years ago! It was July 4th, so that night we went out to watch the fireworks in Coralville.

Tuesday my mom kept Scarlett, took her to work down at the Dental Lab. I hear they had a fun day all together, mom, dad, and Scarlett. I went with my sister, Kara, to Prairie Du Chien WI to get my older sister Alicia and her two kids. They spent the rest of the week in Iowa City with us. I'm pretty bummed I didn't take pictures of them all out in the kiddie pool on the deck. But they had fun out in the humid hot days in the water.

My brother Aaron and I. . . he is growing out his hair... to donate.

Alicia and I spent some time organizing family pictures and getting them printed for frames to display at the wedding anniversary party. I worked on a few old small 3x4" photos that were from the 50s when they were married. I was able to blow them up, clear them with different contrasts/exposure using Adobe's lightroom and photoshop. I even added some color to a black and white so the maid of honor's dress was yellow, grandpa's suit was navy, they had red rose boutonnieres and bouquets. It was pretty neat, if I do say so myself.

The party was awesome! They had the bakery up the street make a replica of the original wedding cake. It was delicious too! My aunt Joette gave me a few journal entries to share about stories of the kids growing up and memories. I think that was my favorite part. They had a display of my grandpa's airplanes (he built them after flying them in the war) and my grandma's quilts. She does amazing, amazing work. I would say about 100 people came. 40 of us were family. It was a great night, I'm so glad I could be there for it.

I drove the 3 kiddos home ... it was a 45 min drive. It went pretty well, and they were asleep by the time we got back to Iowa City.

The bakery my parents ordered the anniversay cake from gave us a dozen baked goods for us to sample, Scarlett enjoyed them...

Saturday we had a Hartley Family dinner, so we were with all my cousins again. We played mario kart and visited a lot. My parent's basement flooded about 2 years ago and they have completely redone it. Dad has a very nice set up going on down there now! It's a home theater , a nice big screen with surround sound, grandma-made curtains. The carpet is as plush as carpet can be, and there are big love sacks to just plop down into and watch a movie or play the Wii. Then the other half of the basement is a kids play room. Scarlett loved that!

Scarlett and mom with GiGi Hartley and GGPa Hartley.

Sunday after church and dinner Scarlett and I drove to Waterloo to visit with GGma and Pa Oesterle. Also, Seth's parents - Grandma and grandpa Burke came down from Michigan just to see us! Scarlett loves to play with her grandparents, it was so nice to see and visit with them. We spent Monday going to the pet store and Mcdonald's for chicken nuggets. Scarlett wasn't feeling well all day and had a very hard time napping. So unfortunately she didn't play much as she usually does. But I hope it was worth it for Seth's parents to come to see us, it's quite a drive from Michigan. I tried to take a ton of pictures, which are all on my ipod, I need to figure out how to get them off.

We went back to Iowa City late Monday night. On Tuesday we tried to make the most of our last day with my parents. We went to the pet store to see the cats, dogs, rabbits, etc. I have never been to a pet store as awesome as the one in Iowa City by sycamore mall. You can hold a lot of animals, and they always have a great selection of cats and dogs. It was raining off and on, but we went with my parents to the ped mall downtown and Scarlett ran through the fountain. Iowa City has 3 or 4 random pianos placed around downtown for the public to play. I think it is pretty cool! Scarlett had a fun time plunking down on the ivories. We got some yummy gelato and headed back home for Scarlett to get a nap in.

Later that night we went to Texas Roadhouse for dinner with my parents and Brian and Gloria. On the way to the restaurant Brian told us he had proposed to Gloria!! And they are getting married!!! We are soooooo excited to have Gloria in our family, I don't barely even know her but I think she is so great. I'm excited to have another wedding in the family too! Very, very exciting.

After dinner we went and fed the ducks at City Park. Too bad it had been raining so the mini carnival/train wasn't open. But the ducks were a hit. There were a ton of them and we were just barely parking when they all flocked to us for some bread. Scarlett loved it.

Wednesday morning with grandma...

Wednesday morning hanging out at the lab before heading out for the airport.

Wednesday we headed to the airport early afternoon. Scarlett didn't have as great of a time as it was when we flew out to Iowa. But we survived. It was nice to be back with our dad/husband. we sure missed him. It was a fun mommy/daughter adventure.

APRIL!!!

2011-08-07T14:21:00.000-07:00

April...

Seth's parents came and visited for a week! They stayed with us half of the time, and stayed with Aubrey and Davin the last half. I really enjoy spending time with Seth's parents. It was fun to have them see what life is like around the clock with our sweet Scarlett. Aubrey had planned a daily activity, so we didn't waste any time doing fun things and making memories.

They flew in on Thursday, We picked them up at the airport and met Aubrey w/ Preston at Cabella's. It was fun for the toddlers to run around and see the fish and animal exhibits.

The employee watching over the gun room was so kind to give these two a sucker. I know Scarlett loves suckers... but they are SO Sticky. And Scarlett can't keep her saliva contained in that sucker overloaded mouth - so we needed to use her jacket as a bib.

We also went to the zoo! That was a big hit. Scarlett went on the carousel for the first time, twice!

The gorilla played peek-a-book with us, we saw lots of reptiles and fun birds. The elephants ate... ate sticks. We also found out Scarlett is just about the size of an Elephant's femur. We saw giraffes and monkeys. It was a good time.

Easter! We took a lot of photos of Preston and Scarlett looking for their eggs. Preston caught on pretty quick! Scarlett... it took her a bit longer to be interested in what was going on. It was a very nice, peaceful, family Easter Sunday.

One day we went on a drive up the canyon. Seth and I enjoy driving up the canyon and finding new roads, dirt roads, to "explore". Vivian Park is a popular stop along Provo Canyon, if you continue driving up through the mountain it is a perfect road for a motorcycle ride, which worked out great for Aubrey and Davin. There was just a small hiccup in the adventure when they ran out of gas on the way. :) The kids loved the little park, and we took a little walk down another path that led to this fun bridge they could look out over the creek. Lots of "oo's" and "ahh's".

We spent an afternoon at IKEA. It was fun to test out their merchandise.

The Burke side of the family were getting together for Easter one night. We went for dinner, and it was a party! I think there were about 20 kids, they definitely outnumbered the adults. It was a good visit. Here is a picture of us all together at Seth's cousin Hillary's house in Springville.

It was overall a very fun and eventful week. We spent the nights getting frozen yogurt, visiting the duck pond, playing cards, etc. We are very grateful Grandma and Grandpa Burke could come visit us for a week!

We do love our cat.

2011-08-07T13:57:00.000-07:00

Another catch up post... about our fun summer.

Raja, our cute tuxedo cat, gave us a scare the end of June. She started throwing up her food and within 48 hours had thrown up 15 times. We just kept her in the bathroom because I got really tired following her around and cleaning it up a lot.

I ended up taking her to the vet. The vet was kind, but seemed to be on this "it's a block, she needs xrays" kick. Apparently the day before someone came in with their cat who had been throwing up, but they knew she was eating foam from a box. So that cat had a barium Xray test and ended up getting emergency surgery. So they paid at least $2800 for the cat to have surgery.

When the vet was telling me the different things that could be wrong with Raja, it was a mental battle "No way are we paying even $100's on her! But we do love her so much, she is a part of the family. She's like a sister to Scarlett, and was our baby before Scarlett came into our lives". Silly. I know.

The vet said Raja either ate something and had a block in her stomach or intestines. OR she had built up an intolerance for her food over a period of time and needs to have hypoallergenic food from now on. We decided to try the different food and wait it out. We could have done $500 worth of Xrays to see if she had a block for peace of mind. But we figured even if they did find that she has a block, we wouldn't be forking out the $1,000's for her to have surgery. So we waited, watched her closely... and we are extremely grateful she gradually got better and is now her normal self.

Not going to lie, I was bawling on the way home from the vet thinking that she may not make it or be okay. We do love our Raja.

a 5K

2011-08-07T13:52:00.000-07:00

At the beginning of June we did our first 5K! As cool as that sounds... we pretty much walked the whole way, I did jog the last bit though. Scarlett even went with us, in the red wagon. We kept up a pretty good pace, it was a good experience as a family.

Scarlett's pretty dress

2011-08-07T13:46:00.000-07:00

Because I have been super lazy at blogging... This is just a random post with super cute pictures we took of Scarlett in a pretty dress she got as a gift from a special person. She's 15 months in these photos, June.
Here she is throwing a tantrum. :)

PG Strawberry Days Rodeo!

2011-08-07T13:36:00.000-07:00

We went to the Strawberry Day’s Rodeo in Pleasant Grove in June. I have gone the last 3 years in a row now. Scarlett enjoyed running around finding cows and seeing the crowd.

Reese and cousin Mary & Ryan joined us too! I love the picture of Reese’s cheese face in the slide show.

It’s almost impossible for Scarlett to fall asleep anywhere other than her car seat and crib. But! We got lucky that night and she fell asleep pretty easily.

She did wake up for fireworks though. We really enjoy going to rodeo’s, just as long no person, or animal gets hurt.

Random Summer ness

2011-08-07T13:25:00.000-07:00

We have been having a lot of fun this summer, which I guess is my reason for not blogging at all!?! Or it' s just because I haven't made it a priority. In June a combo of aunts, uncles, and cousins ran Ragnar! So there were cousins from out of town visiting, and it was a very fun weekend! I haven't compiled all my photos from that weekend, they're on two different cameras, my ipod, and my phone. But here are a few to share.

Gage is such a sweetie to Scarlett. I hope they'll grow up to be good buddies, though they are 11 months apart.

Cousin Preston has been in Michigan all summer so we don't have any recent fun pictures of those two together. But they're coming back to Utah in a week or so. So we have had my friend watch Scarlett for me while I work 2 days a week. One day Scarlett had dirtied her clothes (food, drinks, playing, etc) so when I picked her up she had her bikini on! Ha. Ha. I had forgotten to put an extra set of clothes in the diaper bag for that day. But it was really perfect... By the time we got home it was raining, and she just went out in the rain in that little bikini.

PG Children's Parade

2011-08-07T13:11:00.001-07:00

We joined cousins Olivia and Gage for the Pleasant Grove Strawberry Day's Children's Parade again this year (June). We had a great set up with the red wagon! Gage and Scarlett were pretty good to just sit in it the couple of blocks we walked.

The cups dragging behind them were a hit! I'm glad Seth could leave work early and join us for the fun event.

Seth's favorite children's book

2011-08-07T13:05:00.000-07:00

Scarlett loves books. She has her own shelf on the living room book shelf of just her books, just at her reach. She'll often bring us a book for us to read to her, or she will just carry them around the apartment.

Seth's favorite children's book is "The little mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear". Quite the title. He says it's the first book he memorized, they must have read it a lot growing up!

I love these pictures of Seth reading his favorite book to Scarlett.

End of May

2011-05-25T22:15:00.001-07:00

I have so much to catch this blog up with. Like the end of April - When Seth's parents came and visited for a week!! It was such a blast. And Easter! I haven't even posted about Easter...

Or how about Seth's birthday? He turned 27 on Monday. I haven't taken as many pictures as I really should be.

So here are a few photos... I'll have to get a few slideshows done to highlight the last month and when Steve and Sandi were here. But until then...

She loves to wear Seth's Shoes...And then tries to walk in them.
Scarlett just got the "sip from a straw" trick tonight... It took her a bit, we are so proud! :)

Scarlett and Raja.... They both love looking out the screened window...

Here is Raja trying to make peace after Scarlett had shoved her away from the window.
But Scarlett is pretty sure only she can be looking out the screened window, no room for a cat too! Scarlett usually "pats" rather than "pets" Raja... Which Raja will usually endure. Then there are times Raja will not take it from Scarlett and they get in their "cat fight". Thank goodness for plastic claws you can put on cats so they don't scratch you. We learned about them after Raja had had enough and got Scarlett REAL good - on the face. Much better than declawing a cat. and it actually works. Seth's Birthday Banner... Does it look familiar?

Scarlett was running a fever all day. So none of her invited cousins could come to Seth's Birthday party. :( After 102-103 temps we took her to the doctor Tuesday... double ear infection... joy! She sure is a trooper though. Of course she was well enough to test out cousin Ryan's shoes.
The Big 2-7... Lots of smoke after he blew that cake out!

A Rainy Day... Seth worked the weekend day shift last week. So while we missed him on Saturday and Sunday... We had a lot of good family time Friday/Monday/Tuesday! Too bad Scarlett was sick for most of that time, we had hoped to do a few more fun things. But the weather wasn't great either, so not sure what all we would have planned on doing anyway.
She cracks me up.
Saturday night Scarlett went with me to the Adult session of Stake conference, since Seth was at work. We lasted an hour... she just wants to run around everywhere now. Sunday, we made it just an hour of the general stake conference session... I'm so grateful for Seth, it would be very difficult to be a single parent! Sunday... Scarlett was very interested in the fire hydrant outside the church. She even dropped the Things so she could really find out what the hydrant was all about.

And here she is eating olives for the first time. She didn't seem to care I had put them on her fingertips... I don't think she really even noticed. She ended up chewing on them for like a half hour and then spit them out. Warm, gushy, and slobbered olives - gross.

The Royal Wedding

2011-04-29T20:22:00.000-07:00

dWell. In the last week I have had a variety of deep subjects on my mind. With the recent tornado disasters, still processing/pondering how we might help Japan more, pondering what we will do in case of an emergency, and how to best improve our food storage situation. . . It has been a fun day to read the news, look at pictures and watch ABC's special 20/20 on the Royal Wedding. (whew! What a run-on sentence!)

Before today, I didn't have too much interest in the details of the Royal Wedding. But I was curious what the dress would look like, and what the cake would like.

I was not disappointed!! I loved the dress! It was so unique, loved the lace long sleeves, and how the veil laid on her head. You could still see her beautiful face too. Did you know the tiara was borrowed from the queen? The cake, amazing. They had practiced for months... for the right look and taste. There is so much detail!

But as I have seen the coverage I keep think, "It is amazing there is something so formal and full of traditions in this day in age." It was very neat to watch, it really is a fairy tale.

Hats. Hats. Hats. Some were beautiful that made me think it would be fun if hats were a part of our culture or traditions. And then there were some... that... well, made me grateful hats are not a part of our culture.

What a crowd!! Absolutely unbelievable. I'm not sure if I would have attended if we lived there, but probably... what a historic event. I heard the country got Friday and Monday off for the event. Also, they had a few paid holidays on the calendar already... so if one played their cards right they could get an 11-day stretch of vacation only using 3 days of PTO! Now that would be nice.

The Beckhams... At first when I saw this photo I thought it was neat David Beckham was wearing a medal. But on 20/20 an interviewee said it was quite tacky he wore the medal - he even wore it on the wrong side. It was not an appropriate occasion for such accessories. Hmm...

Anyway...

The kiss. So Perfect. I love that William gave into the crowd and asked Catherine for another kiss!

They are such a perfect couple. Seth and I were discussing how they seem so happy, in love, and "real". Kate is perfect for the new role she just married in to. It almost makes me giddy how real this fairy tale seems to be.

So... yea. I just felt like I should post on this eventful day about such a happy event!

Look at that face!

Oh, and the car... Barbara Walters only described it as a "convertible". That made Seth upset, it is an original Aston Martin!! C'mon people...

Grass

2011-04-19T20:53:00.000-07:00

Isn't this hilarious!? We had to get it on video... hopefully it won't be long when she realizes how good grass feels on bare feet.

Scarlett lately

2011-04-09T10:56:00.000-07:00

My nephew Gage, see the last post, won 3rd place in that baby photo contest. . . So close. Out of almost 500 kids, that's pretty dang good!! He didn't win his much needed swing set. :( Life goes on . . .

Scarlett is growing, growing! I was just looking at some pictures from a memory card and figured I could make another post on the blog, of course it's about her... again...
One of my college roommates from Jr/Sr year at BYU has a little girl just a week older than Scarlett. Huffy (Lisa) And her little Ashlyn stopped by one afternoon while they were in town. It was SO Nice to catch up with Huffy and see her cute little Ashlyn. Scarlett seemed a little more obnoxious/feisty around sweet, calm and content Ashlyn. But maybe these two can still be good friends some day. . .

Scarlett loves to do "half hand stands", not sure what to call them. Last night she was actually trying to dance in this position, silly girl. We're thinking she may be ready to learn a somersault soon?

We have a few beaded necklaces around. She is always wearing one. It's the one thing she can successfully put on herself!! It's pretty cute when she tries to put on other clothes, but at least the necklace is an easy one for her.

She is almost getting close to imitating words, I think. It depends on her mood. She knows the word "no" that's for sure! If we tell her "no" to something, she usually repeats it over and over at a stuffed animal or our cat, Raja. It's pretty funny. "Scarlett, no. Don't play with Raja's food." Scarlett - "no no no no no no" pointing to a stuffed animal or shaking her head. We're trying to teach her "yes". . . sometimes she'll just do the "ssssss". It's pretty freaking cute.

I loved her hair this morning. :)

Please Vote!

2011-03-28T09:38:00.000-07:00

My Brother and Sister-in-law have entered their little boy in a baby photo contest.

This is my Nephew, Gage. There are a lot of adorable kids entered in this contest, but I promise it's not worth looking through the other contestant's photos! This little boy has the most handsome face of them all.

Would you please Vote for him? To vote - click HERE.

The winner gets a swing set. And my brother's little girl and this little boy really need a swing set. In fact, they've wanted one for a long time. For the last few summers my niece, almost 5 years old, has begged her dad and grandpa (my dad) to build her a swing set... but it hasn't been able to happen yet. Help their dreams come true!!

In order to vote you do need to register your E-mail, because they only let you vote once. But you don't receive any spam or even a confirmation E-mail, promise! So here are the steps...

1. Click on this link...
2. Click "Vote Now"
3. Enter your E-mail address <- don't worry, they don't send you anything or use it at all.
3. Click on circle # 324 . . .and enter your name/ gender / birthdate / zip code. Also, be sure to answer the three questions "no" to make sure you don't receive any unwanted e-mails.

Thanks for helping out and voting!! I have the best family and friends ever, Thanks!

Primary

2011-03-27T15:40:00.000-07:00

I don't have a real story to share, like my last post about teaching Primary. . . But I thought I'd just post anyway.

Seth let me sleep in this morning, he got up with Scarlett. Well, I got her a bottle at 7:30 and she slept until 9:00, that's when Seth got up. I got up for the day at 11:00. I know, that's ridiculous, right!?! I agree, it is. I got up, then Scarlett and Seth went down for a nap. Why is it that Sundays are always the super sleepy/tired day? When you have church at 1:00pm it's hard to not just want to sleep the morning away. Anyway!

I read through my lesson again, made chocolate chip cookies to take to the class, and found video clips I could use to enrich the lesson. The lesson was "Jesus Christ heals the sick". I watched "Finding Faith in Christ" and part of "The Testaments". It had been too long since I've watched these favorites. I love this quote from "Finding faith in Christ",

"Faith is knowing that good will come out of whatever happens to us." . . . "Perhaps faith isn't faith until it is tried"

I think I've mentioned before, Even after being a missionary and teaching the basic doctrine of the Gospel for 18 months, I don't have confidence that I'm a good primary teacher. But today was a confidence booster. It was a good lesson, the class paid attention, I felt like it went well. Maybe it's because I showed a video and they got a cookie? :) I'm learning different things that help keep their attention and so they understand.

We read a lot of the miracles Jesus performed during his ministry. I shared about Scarlett getting a blessing last Monday to help her with the Pneumonia and Bronchiolitis. The girls were very interested in the clips I showed about Jesus raising the dead, healing leprosy, etc. The spirit was there, and I believe they felt it as well.

It has been an uplifting Sabbath day! I am grateful for the Gospel in my life. I have faith in my Savior, in the Plan of Happiness, and know Heavenly Father hears and answers our prayers. I am very excited to hear the Prophet and his apostles speak next weekend. We are very blessed to live in this last dispensation with the fullness of the Gospel!

A wedding, Family, and seriously sick.

2011-03-21T20:57:00.000-07:00

* WEDDING *

A few Fridays ago, the 11th we went to Vernal for Seth's cousin's wedding. Aubrey and Preston came along for the road trip. We were contemplating just going another 45 min or so to visit a Dinosaur museum in Colorado, but not enough time. Haha, that's how far East we were!

The wedding was beautiful, everything was decorated so pretty. It was a nice ceremony too, RaeAnna's husband's uncle was able to perform the marriage. A lot of people came to support the happy couple!

Scarlett and Preston had fun running around and playing with each other. And Scarlett enjoyed getting a hitch in her stroller by the cute flower girls and her other 2nd cousins. We drove home after the reception, It's a beautiful drive!

* Family *
My family came into town on the 12th! It was my little sister's spring break, and the annual family scrapbook weekend. I didn't scrapbook this year, but helped my mom with just a few small things. Dad, Mom, Alicia w/ her kids Ellia and Beck, and Kara came for the week! It was sooo nice to have them in town and spend every day with them while they were here.

We spent a lot of time at my grandparent's house, in Pleasant Grove. I went out every morning and stayed until late in the evening every day.Scarlett loved playing with her cousins. Olivia is 4 1/2, Ellia 3 1/2, Gage is 2, and Beck is almost 20 months. She got around just fine with them all. They were nice to her too. Scarlett mastered going down stairs on my grandparent's carpeted 25ish stairs that lead to the basement. I guess one day when I was out with my sisters she ventured down them on her own, tumbled down... luckily it was on her bum? No one really saw but she didn't cry! I am glad Seth taught her how to go down properly a few nights later.

I failed at taking quality photos, always a regret. The week was busy chasing around 5 little ones, and we did a lot of fun things together. Sunday family dinner at Ben and Melissa's, Grandkids professional photo shoot, Went to Tangled at the cheap theater, Bowling, lots of shopping, ice cream, more shopping in Park City, playing with kids, scrapbooking, and out to eat at Tepanyaki with no kids, just us adults.
I found her this super cute hat for cheap, and sunglasses too... Here she is modeling them for us. I love her shirt, we found it at Saver's just in time for St. Patrick's day (which is when these were taken).

I really don't like when my family leaves town and I don't know when I'll see them again, it's the worse. I always fight tears saying "see ya later". It's really hard being so far away from most of them, I would love to move back to the Midwest.

They headed out Friday for their long drive home, and we returned to real life.

* Seriously Sick *

Scarlett started coughing Wednesday night and by Thursday late afternoon she was running a fever. Poor girl. She has had a pretty consistent fever ever since then. Saturday her fever wasn't going away with Tylenol and she was just miserable. You know your toddler is sick when they're okay to just sit on your lap, not moving for hours at a time.

Off to the after hours clinic...

The use this tape to keep the monitor on her foot when they check her oxygen levels. They gave it to her to play with before leaving the room and his sweetheart was trying to put it back on her foot! Smart little one, isn't she?The doc told us she has RSV and gave us the option of going to the suction clinic at the hospital. We decided it shouldn't hurt, hopefully it would make her better.Talk about torture! A respiratory therapist just did a shallow suction because Scarlett's sinus' really haven't been too congested. It is so sad, as a mom, to watch your baby get suctioned. They lay her on a blanket, tuck her arms in so she can't move, and then the parent holds the legs as the therapist suctions out their sinuses. Poor Miss. We went home and went to bed w/ a temp of 102.8.

Sunday... she woke up more wheezy with her fever. We took her to the suction clinic, and they didn't get much out. She had a fever throughout the day, even with alternating Tylenol and Motrin.

This morning she woke up with a temp of 103. We went back to the doctor. I'm glad Scarlett's pediatrician was available, she gave us the attention we needed. Since Scarlett's fever has been going on 5 days now, there had to be something more going on.

Scarlett has been so miserable, it was so sad to have to put her through everything this morning! It was pure torture!! You know all the poking and swabbing and tools that come along with an exam. She screamed the entire time. Poor thing. Diagnosis? The RSV test came back positive. RSV is a virus that can progress to bronchiolitis and/or pneumonia. After listening to her lungs and breathing it was clear she has bronchiolitis. Scarlett's right lung seemed to have more congestion, so we did a breathing treatment, which helped some. But our doctor was still concerned about congestion in her right lung. So we went and had a chest Xray done in Provo.

At this point I was pretty concerned. I did not want my baby to have pneumonia! I've never had it, and I just think of hospitalization when I hear pneumonia. Also, my little Scarlett is little, it was scary! At this point it was 11:30, way past her morning nap time. She was so mad at me and had been through enough, but at the Xray place I had to hold her still on the table for them to xray her. It was so sad to use everything I had to hold her down and as still as possible as she wailed and screamed.

After the Xray we picked up her Nebulizer at the home care clinic place. . Yay! Breathing treatments every 4-6 hours again until she gets better. Since we were right there at the Provo hospital I took her in for another suctioning. I really wish Seth was there, this was the most traumatic part of the day.

The previous two suctions they really didn't get much out of her. But I wanted to go in again b/c at this point I am going to do anything to prevent her from getting worse and developing pneumonia. Scarlett started screaming right when we entered the treatment room, she definitely remembered the previous visits. The Therapist said she wouldn't suction Scarlett unless she felt it was absolutely necessary. After getting her oxygen levels, respiratory rate, listening to her breath, and she had some retraction, the therapist said Miss definitely needed to be suctioned.

I tear up just thinking about this experience again. Ugh! She got strapped in the blanket, I had to hold her body down and hold her head still. . . I had the ipod playing "Somewhere over the Rainbow" Kamakawiwoʻole style. . . And the deep suctioning began. Scarlett's eyes rolled back into her head, she couldn't breathe, she was gasping and gagging and just not breathing. I got really mad at the lady and said she couldn't breathe, and then I just lost it... bawling. The therapist assured me she was okay... and Scarlett went back to just screaming. Then the lady stuck her tubes down the other nostril and the same thing happened... Scarlett's eyes were blood shot, face red, sweating, screaming, etc. It was absolutely terrible. But then all of the sudden Scarlett was calm and just breathing so easily. She was OK. And the therapist came around the table to comfort ME. :) SIGH It was terrible. Seth is taking her next time!!

That was the last thing on the list for her torturous morning. We got home, got the antibiotics started and she went to sleep. Poor Girl! I got a call from the Doctor's office about her Chest Xray and she does have Pneumonia. Luckily it's mild, she has a small patch of pneumonia that should be cleared up with the antibiotics. I was so terrified she would have pneumonia, but she will be okay.

Later I made Seth come home from work early so he could force her to drink. She's mildly dehydrated, and will not take a bottle/sippy cup/Popsicle/her favorite water bottle. The nurse explained she should get at least a teaspoon or two every 10 minutes. And we'd need to pry her mouth open if that's what it takes. TORTURE!!

Scarlett got another blessing tonight. I am so grateful for the power of the priesthood on the earth today. I saw an almost immediate difference in Scarlett. She's been very shaky, pale, can't walk on her own. She wouldn't leave our laps for days and just moans or cries constantly. Tonight she was rolling the basketball around, playing with Raja, lind of walking around, pulling out the DVD's! And She hasn't had a fever this evening, at all. I'm hopeful she's just going to get better from here.

We love our miss, and are grateful there are so many medical options to help her get better. She is so sweet, and so cute. We are a happy family!

I love this picture :) She got this bikini from a friend for her birthday, we had to try it on :) This summer she's going to be a babe at the pool.

Hartley Grandkids Photo shoot 2011

2011-03-15T10:20:00.000-07:00

My parents are in town! with my sisters!! And my sister's kids, Scarlett's cousins!!!

Yesterday we had all the grandkids together, 5 of them, for a photo shoot. Scarlett didn't smile, at all. She just looks at everyone who is trying to make her laugh like they're crazy, and acting funny. Which they are. But she doesn't smile at it.

So... Here's a group shot
And Scarlett's poses, sheesh! What a poser... But not like an Olivia or Ellia kind of poser... sigh.They turned out pretty good! I actually didn't go, hoping Scarlett wouldn't just want me/cry/try to get Seth or I. Alicia, my older sister, didn't go either so her two kids would do better. They turned out pretty good!

Japan

2011-03-11T10:19:00.001-08:00

I'm so sad for Japan right now. I served in Hiroshima, so my mission/friends/Japanese family were safe from this devastation, and the continual effects of the earthquake/tsunami. From my friend Sammy, who lives in Okayama

- Sammy Sadamitsu Thank you, Mama WE're OK. It happened on the otherside of Japan; far away. However, I'm unhappy about it since SO MANY people are hurt. It's even BIGGER the one I experienced. THANK YOU for praying. They all need that!!! Thank you, again.
  2 hours ago ·

Haha, he called me Mama. I was concerned!

In 2002 I went with my brothers Brian and Garrett to Japan to visit my older sister, Alicia. Alicia taught English in Japan for a year. She taught in Iwate. It's in the Sendai area. Her Japanese friends and Japanese family were not so lucky.

I have to tell you a story.

2011-03-08T08:09:00.000-08:00

Seth and I teach Primary. Our class is usually 4-6 girls who are 8/9 years old. Last Sunday Seth needed to stay home so I was on my own. I taught about the Sermon on the Mount... The Beatitudes, serve our enemies, the golden rule.

The lesson was going alright... I have a very difficult time keeping their attention on the lesson.They are much better behaved when Seth teaches. I also had Scarlett to entertain, usually whoever isn't teaching is on Scarlett duty. Scarlett's always difficult because she should having an afternoon nap at that moment. She was everywhere, into everything, and they all love her. So I'm pretty sure no one actually understood what I was trying to teach.

In fact, I know some girls didn't understand me. As we read about the Golden Rule in the bible, and I was explaining it to them... one girl interrupts me and says she has the most perfect example for the golden rule. This particular little lady knows Everything, I'll admit she is extremely intelligent, but she also knows she's intelligent and sometimes may feel she needs others to understand she has great knowledge.

So she goes right into her example. The room goes quiet. Scarlett is even listening. She summarizes a book on tape she read along with. It's about a Grizzly bear who kills an entire family of beavers except one little girl beaver.

The little girl beaver gets away and hides from the big grizzly bear. Girl beaver collects foliage, branches, etc to build a false ground trap, and captures the grizzly bear. And then, our sweet primary girl pauses, she says in a high pitched voice as the girl beaver, "Grizzly Bear shall die!"

It was so eerie. Evil was in the room. I'm not kidding. You needed to be there. (read the story here, it's kinda psycho.) We all just looked at her while she looked at us. She sensed the uncomfortable feeling and said "what! It's on the tape, that's exactly how she says it on the tape." Then she turns to me. "And the Beaver killed the grizzly bear. That's the perfect example. A perfect example of the golden rule."

Sigh. Nope... No one understands me. I told her that's opposite of the golden rule. Do unto others as you would want others to do to you. I told her "If you don't want to die, don't kill others. Even if they did kill your whole family.... Should we go back to the "Love your enemies" part of the lesson?"

She looked at me dumbfounded and it was time to go back to the Primary room for sharing time. Oh well.

We all know I'm no good at telling stories or explaining situations/stories, etc. very well. My grammar needs serious help - and I don't punctuate appropriately. I was excited to teach that lesson, I try to remember the golden rule every day of my life. It was really difficult for me on Sunday that I couldn't share this with 8 and 9 year olds. How did I survive my mission?

Living and learning...

Birthday part 2

2011-03-06T16:20:00.001-08:00

We had quite a celebration for our first child's first birthday on Saturday. It was fun to "study" fun ideas for her Dr. Seuss Thing 1 and Thing 2 theme. Here are some photos of the apartment before the party began. I found some cute Dr. Seuss quotes to put around the apartment to try to stick to the theme. Also, we got some 1 hour prints done of her photo shoot that was Thursday, and put them in our new frames around the living room mirror.

"Today you are you,
That is truer than true.
There is no one alive
who is youer than you" - Dr. Seuss

What do you do for a 1 year old's birthday? We had some Dr. Seuss word finds, and a "How many jelly beans are in this jar?" Guessing game, winner got to take the candy home (Bethany won it!).

"If you never did, you should.
these things are fun, and fun is good!" -Dr. Seuss.We served chips/salsa, apples/oranges, and smokies wrapped in bacon.

"For Birthday Luncheons, As A Rule,
We Serve Hot Dogs, Rolled On A Spool." - Dr. Seuss

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The party was from 12:30 to 2:00... About 1:00 we opened presents. Scarlett is spoiled. She didn't care about opening the presents much in the moment, and I'm afraid she didn't react a ton in the moment either. BUT! After the party, after things had calmed down and it was just us in the room... she loved playing with everything. It was really fun to see her just go from toy to toy, or sweater, or ball, or socks... and she would just carry things around with her. She got a fun farm book that she loves looking at, and it has fun tabs in order to turn the pages... she loves books.

Grandpa and Grandma Burke mailed us an extra special book for her. It's from Hallmark, I had seen commercials for them, and have thought they're pretty neat. Well, now I know they are super neat. It's a book that you can record your voice reading it. As you turn the pages, a light sensor kicks in and reads the words on each page. Gma and Pa Burke sent us one of these spper cool books. It's called, "All the ways I love you". It's Grandpa Burke's voice, and he is so great at reading stories. Pretty much he is the best grandpa ever. He has a way with little ones I've never known before. This book is very special to us!!

"A Present! A-ha!
Now what kind shall I give...?
Why, the kind you'll remember
as long as you live!"
(Dr. Seuss' birthday bird)

After presents Scarlett gave a big thanks by clapping for a good while. It was pretty cute!After presents we had cake. I made a 5 layer Dr. Seuss cake. I should have taken more photos! I know there are more photos a friend took, but this is the only photo I have of it right now. (Please ignore our hideous fridge.) It's a layer of Funfetti on top and 4 layers of a super yummy chocolate cake on bottom. It took a bit of time... but worked out pretty well. I like how my sister put it, "It's wonky, like the Cat's hat is". The cake is obviously homemade by an amateur!Scarlett's Smash cake... I was attempting a thing 1 thing 2 cupcake. Aunt Heather helped me frost it. It's about 4-5 inches of blue frosting on top of a funfetti cupcake. She took her time putting bit by bit in her little mouth, and she kept eating it for almost an hour! She liked the rainbow sherbet too. After about 20 minutes of eating the cupcake she got SUPER crazy happy and goofy. She was shaking her head back and forth and up and down. Laughing and clapping. It was pretty hilarious.

"One little candle,
One little cake,
One little birthday
To Celebrate!"
(Dr. Seuss)

This morning I was changing her 2nd poo in the first few hours of waking up and it was actually GREEN-BLUE! I took a picture, but I'll spare you that image... What a party we had! I was afraid the frosting would stain her body... but it came right off in the tub.

I was exhausted once she was cleaned up and the party was over. I just wanted a nap!! But little miss was flying high and full of energy. Her sugar buzz lasted another 2 hours. Above I mentioned she played w/ all her new toys, etc... yep, for 2 hours. She loved it.
Happy Birthday Sweet Scarlett! I'm glad we could celebrate so much, it was my therapy for accepting you're not a baby anymore. I love my sweet girl!!

And thanks to all who came to help us celebrate! As the Doctor himself would say,

"Oh me, Oh my! How nice of you to stop by!"

Scarlett's Birthday part 1

2011-03-03T00:07:00.000-08:00

Seth is working the weekend night shift this week, so he actually got work off for Thursday, Friday and next Monday! Scarlett's birthday... she started the day with the breakfast of champions... Multi-grain cheerios with yogurt. Mmm Mmm.

After her morning nap, she had her first hair cut appointment. My hair lady, Sarah, at Salon Graffiti cut it for us. I was nervous Scarlett wouldn't sit still enough for Sarah to cut it well, but she did pretty good. She didn't move around like crazy, but wasn't exactly still either. We cut off a few inches in the back, to make it all even with the rest of her hair that grew in after she was born. And she has very "thin" bangs, I think it looks amazing! I was pretty sad to get it cut at first, but it was time to make it all even. I'm pleased with the outcome and glad we did it. We saved most of what was cut off, to put in her baby book. Here are some before and after photos.
Late afternoon, we did a mini photo session with Fotogenix. It was a pretty good deal, we got a 30 minute shoot, they touch up the photos, and gave us a CD with about 20 photos on it with full rights to the pictures. All for $85. We bought the cupcake from Cupcake chic next door to Fotogenix, brought some balloons along for some help making the photos more birthday-ish.They look amazing. Which is Amazing... because Scarlett was Not Happy throughout the half hour!!! It was a difficult first experience for her. She cried a lot, wouldn't stay in place, just wanted to be held by Seth or I. But somehow, they gave us a CD of 26 good looking photos. A gal named Salena was our photographer, and she did awesome.

Seth then had to go to class. . . Scarlett and I ran a few errands and hung out at home before she went to sleep. It was a good day for her! I went in to look at her one last time before I went to sleep, and had to take a picture... I've never seen her sleep this way before. She was pooped!!

Scarlett turns 1 !!!

2011-03-03T00:01:00.003-08:00

Happy Birthday Scarlett!!

I cannot believe my baby is one year old. It is fun to think back about what Seth and I were doing a year ago today. It was the best day of our life together so far.

Our little miss was born at 12:36am on 3/3/10. Weighing in at 7 lbs and a whole 21 inches long, we were in awe at this new gift in our lives. She was such a sweet newborn.

And now our blonde, toddling daughter is a whole year old!

Scarlett loves :

**Laughing at Raja

** Snuggling with Raja

**Chasing Raja

**Playing with Raja (our cat)

** Looking at books

**Walking around with clothes on her head

**Trying to put shirts on.

**Following mom and dad around the house

**Talking to herself ... and others.

**Thing 1 and Thing 2(Dr Seuss)

**Music. Dancing to music. Directing music.

**Shaking her head no and nodding “yes”

**Clapping her hands, especially to pat-a-cake

**Giving High Fives!

**Being on dad’s shoulders

**Playing “So big” with dad in front of the mirror

**Balloons

**Playing with Cousin Preston

**”Attacking” mom or dad when they least expect it

**Being outside, and going new places – it really gets her excited to walk into a store!

** She LOVES, loves Church and Primary!!

** She gets very excited to see kids or other babies, any child she sees is her best friend.

**Raggedy Ann and her baby doll.

**Electric outlets – we really have to watch her closely in new places

**Climbing stairs

**Baby Einstein

**Yogurt and multigrain cheerios – together.

Things that don’t really fly with Scarlett:

- Brushing her teeth.

- Crawling

- The process of putting on clothes – her head is so big, it’s hard to get shirts on!!

- People touching her toes and feet. She hates it!

We love discovering more about Scarlett’s personality as she learns new things. She is a happy girl, who seems to love the world around her. She is easy to laugh, Claps when she is so happy, and loses her breath in excitement. She is independent and explores, but is very logical and cautious. Well, she is getting more brave when it comes to walking. Each day she can get around faster and faster. She's growing pretty fast!

She is getting her first haircut today. And we're taking birthday photos at Fotogenix. I hope she is happy for these new big things! We are celebrating with family and friends on Saturday. But really it's just going to be a party for the rest of the week and all weekend long.

She is cute

The cutest girl ever.

Target's Dr. Seuss reading time

2011-02-26T11:20:00.001-08:00

This morning Miss and I headed to Target for some reading time. We brought her sleeping buddy, her "blanky", Thing 1 and Thing 2 along for the fun. Scarlett got this 'thing' as a gift beginning of last summer from Aunt Amy and Uncle Jake, and is in love with it. It's her best friend, and is actually the theme of her birthday party next Saturday. I think it's pretty cool they had this random Dr. Seuss reading activity at target! I've been looking for Dr. Seuss party supplies, etc for the last few weeks and this activity just appeared. We were at Michael's looking at frames yesterday, and they had a little section of Dr. Seuss stuff, so random! But I got a few things for her party next week. I know she won't remember thing about her first birthday, but they say it's more for the parents (or mom) than the baby... I've had a good time so far preparing for it!At target, she got a little baggie with snacks, crayons, pictures to color, a balloon. We listened to a few Dr. Seuss books, ate goldfish, and snuggled with "the things". It was a sweet Saturday morning.Too bad this is blurry, it was a cute one of her loving "the things". Now if we can just convince dad to come outside w/ us to build our first snowman before the snow melts!

I'm pretty excited...

2011-02-14T22:29:00.000-08:00

I'm pretty excited for a stack of these to arrive in the mail so I can send them on to others!

Valentine's Happiness

2011-02-13T22:14:00.001-08:00

Every year my extended family gets together for a Valentine's Day dinner. It's neat to think Seth and I have gone for the last 5 years, and Scarlett was with us this time. It was a very yummy dinner, fantastic company, and we played Nertz. Of course we played Nertz.
My Aunt Heather goes way out, and makes it so fun. Last year it was at my grandparents, they did an awesome job last year. It's just fun because of the decorations, themed dinner, and the cake. Red Waldorf Cake. Pretty much it's Red Velvet from scratch. Very yummy. And the frosting, mmmm... and I don't like frosting!Lately, it seems when we are visiting family in Pleasant Grove there is cake. And Gigipa Unsicker Loves to feed Scarlett cake. Yea... nevermind that she isn't suppose to have chocolate yet. Ggpa like stuffs her face with it, she doesn't seem to mind. Ggpa also kept Scarlett entertained while we played cards. It was sooooo cute! I love seeing Scarlett loved by her grandparents and great grandparents.
It was a fun evening! Tomorrow I am working, but after Seth and I are off work we're going to grab a fast dinner and head to "Just go with it" at the theaters. I'm Super Excited to be able to go out with the hubby on Valentine's day. Aubrey, Seth's sister is going to watch Scarlett for us. Aub also watches her for us while I work, so.... Scarlett is going to hang out with her cousin Preston literally all day tomorrow. Thank You Aubrey!!

We watched Preston this past Friday night as Aub/Davin went out for their Valentine's day special date. These cousins sure do love each other! I'm glad Preston is patient with Scarlett since she steals whatever he's playing with, as shown below. I think she just finds interest in whatever he is doing and then... takes matters into her own hands. I hope this doesn't turn her being spoiled... more than she already is.

11 months and more!

2011-02-03T20:46:00.000-08:00

I have 5 or more posts started, saved, and need photos added. All about life the past 3 months. I just need to take the time to finish them!

But ! Before I go to sleep so I can get up for 4 hours of work at 4:00am. I needed to post a special happy 11 months post to my miss.

Scarlett's personality is bursting. She is a happy girl! And I think she is getting 4 teeth on top at the moment. Poor thing. I would love to say every single thing about her that makes me smile and laugh - but that would take too long tonight. So here are photos to suffice, and a special video showing her slow and steady cute steps.

We Love Our Miss!

Catch up Time!

2011-01-27T09:56:00.000-08:00

This is the first of 5 posts... I have a lot of catching up to do. And here it is! Just for you . . . and for journaling purposes ;)

**I never posted these!! It's May now... May/25/11 :) I never posted these posts I was saving as drafts b/c I hadn't added photos... I should go back and add photos. . . But I'm posting these suckers now!

Thanksgiving Part I - Vegas/Iowa

2011-01-27T09:55:00.004-08:00

Thursday, a week before Thanksgiving, we drove down to Vegas. It's cheaper to fly out Vegas, MUCH cheaper. Cheap Hotels too, and the best free entertainment in the US.

*We stayed at the Station Palace. You have to pay a $15 amenities fee when you stay there, which includes a free airport shuttle. AND you can park your car there when you fly out Vegas, we saved big time w/o paying airport parking daily fees.

*We walked up and down the strip for 2 hours with Scarlett in the stroller(9-11pm). It was a blast! It was also ridiculous because we were in search for a 'cool, not your average inexpensive restaurant' place to eat dinner. And... we'd pass one and decide to see what we'd find next. Seth and I were both kinda grumpy b/c we were tired and hungry. It was an adventure. We'd walk in and out of hotel lobbies to see what neat things we could find. And we actually ended up eating at the 'cool, not your average inexpensive restaurant' - Panda express. ha - yea, that really worked. AND! It was just a few blocks away from our car, we ate on the way back. Joy.

*We got lots of compliments and 'aww' looks b/c of Scarlett. A few men who had clearly had a few drinks in them, advised Seth while we were waiting at a crosswalk. "You better not let that one out of the house once she turns 12. She is a cute, it's all down hill from here". Thanks boys.

*Our flight left Friday at noon to Cedar Rapids, IA. 20 min drive from my home. Mom, Dad, Aaron, and Kara picked us up about 6:00pm and we drove north to Cedar Falls to see my High School football team play in the State Championship game! It was pretty fun!!

*We Spent Saturday, Sunday, Monday in Iowa City. Saturday, my sister and Bro in Law Alicia/Tim came down from their home in Wisconsin. We all went to eat at Texas Roadhouse and then to see "Unstoppable" at the theater.

*Sunday was busy, busy too! We went to Church at the home ward. And There was a big Hartley Family dinner right after. It was so great to spend time with Gma & pa Hartley, Dillon & Sarah were in town from Georgia... Armbrusters, Days, tony's family, Tim & Hannah's family, etc were all there. It's never a dull moment during a Hartley Family gathering. Scarlett really enjoyed Gma Hartley's homemade Macaroni & Cheese. But then again, who doesn't?

*Monday, Seth went to join his family who was gathering in Nauvoo for the wedding on Tuesday. But I stayed another day in Iowa City with my family. Monday night my sister Kara had a Jazz Band concert, she plays the piano. I'm glad I stayed for that. Scarlett really enjoys live music, a lot. It was really fun to see her dancing on my dad's lap during the concert... Alicia and Scarlett's Cousins Ellia & Beck were there too. After the concert Alice and I drove to Nauvoo with the kids to join the wedding festivities on the Burke side.

I love that a lot of our families live in the same state, Iowa. We're lucky, it's such a good thing!

Thanksgiving Part II - wedding/traveling

2011-01-27T09:55:00.003-08:00

This whole Thanksgiving trip was crazy packed with traveling and exciting things! (not calling it a vacation, it wasn't very relaxing... esp after leaving Iowa City - when is a wedding ever relaxing??)

*Tuesday (11/23), Seth's youngest sister Amy got married in the Nauvoo temple. It was a very memorable ceremony, and a lot of preparation and thoughts had been put in this day. Nauvoo weddings are especially enjoyable because Nauvoo has a very big, special place in my heart. I Loved being there, especially with Seth and Scarlett with me.

*The Bride and Groom looked stunning. The sun was setting as pictures were being taken, and it was a beautiful day. A bit nippy... but not everyone can get as lucky warmer November weather as Seth and I did on our Wedding day in Illinois Nov 25, 2006. We got family/group/wedding party pictures.

*There was an hour between the pictures and when the dinner was to begin. So Seth, Scarlett, and I along w/ the Jarvinen's headed to Seth's parent's hotel room to help his dad pack up the room and check out. That night they were to stay at my aunt Cheri's house (where we had stayed the night before, just down Mullholland St, the main streen in town). Sandi, Seth's mom was with the bride and groom taking more pictures with the photographer around town.

* Seth's dad, Steve, had a heart attack just 3 weeks before this wedding. Three weeks is not enough time for anyone to recover from a heart attack, especially recover enough to not be overwhelmed with their baby's wedding!!

As we were all in the room trying to decide where to pack what, Steve collapsed. It was the scariest thing I have ever witnessed. He didn't lose consciousness, but it was clear something was wrong. I called 911 and an ambulance came, actually two did. Davin and Seth had carried him to lay on the bed, and he was being attended to by the EMT's within 15 min. Nauvoo doesn't have a hospital, the closest was Keokuk and Ft. Madison.

I was pretty shaken up through the whole experience. I'm so grateful my sister, Alicia was there for the wedding. Most of the extended family was just next door, in the building waiting for the dinner to begin. But Alicia was outside in her car when I had left to try to find Sandi. Alicia helped calm me down and talk through the experience too.

*Seth and I missed out on most of the dinner the groom's family worked very hard on putting together. But we were glad we could go to the hospital and be with Seth’s parents. It’s hard being away from our parents, especially in these sort of circumstances. So we’re grateful we were there this time.

Keokuk hospital decided to transport him to Iowa City to the University of Iowa hospitals. Which was convenient! So the in-laws came over to stay at my family’s home as they had Steve in observation for 24 hrs.

Things were looking good for Steve. They did a catheter assessment and his heart actually looks amazing compared to how much it was damaged during the heart attack in October. So that was great news! On Thursday, Thanksgiving, Steve was released from the hospital and joined us all in Waterloo where we spent Thanksgiving.

Waterloo – Seth’s grandparents and aunt/uncle live there, 1 ½ hrs north of my hometown. Thanksgiving dinner was amazing, of course… And pies galore! It was so fun to be with tons of cousins, and there were so, so many little ones running around. It’s neat to see how our families are all changing.

Thanksgiving day was our wedding anniversary as well. Happy wonderful 4 years Seth! Under the circumstances we didn’t really go out and do anything fun, but it was nice to be with family.

*Friday – we drove to Michigan. 9 hours… It was a full day of traveling. Scarlett did pretty well, she slept most of the time.

*Saturday – Reception day! We decorated the church’s cultural hall in preparation to party. We kept Steve down, and away from all the excitement as he was recovering. But that was pretty impossible, so Seth dropped him off at an Urgent Care and left him there a few hours. They found out he had Pneumonia. This was his second time in 2010 getting Pneumonia. In March, just after Scarlett was born he was in the hospital for 10 days because of Pneumonia. This man needs a break from physical ailments!!!

*Reception – The party went on. Jake and Amy were the beautiful bride and groom again. They had a beautiful first dance, they were nice to each other as they cut the cake, and shared many “hello’s” and “Thanks for coming” to the many who came to celebrate. We danced the night away, and mingled with friends we don’t get to see often enough.

Scarlett magically napped through a lot of it. As everyone was clapping after Seth read a letter to Amy that her dad wrote for her, Scarlett clapped for the first time! I had been trying to teach her to clap for weeks up until that moment, it was exciting! Now she LOVES to clap her hands, it’s super cute.
*Sunday we said our good byes to the Burke’s. It was tough to leave right after the big events and craziness. We didn’t get much time to just sit down and visit and enjoy each other’s company. That’s just part of the family wedding package though. We drove back to Iowa and Monday we flew out of Cedar Rapids.

** You’d think this was the end of this LONG, traveling Thanksgiving/Wedding of ours. . . But we still had a long, long day ahead of us.
Our plane got into Vegas at 9:00ish, we took the free airport shuttle back to our hotel, found our car untouched… and began our 5 1/2hr drive back to Orem.

At about 2:00am Seth stopped to get gas in Beaver, UT. I then took a turn driving and not 5 miles out of the Beaver, our car’s transmission went out. BUMMER!!! So, good thing we had a full tank of gas. The tow truck guy, Rick, didn’t get to our stranded car until 3:30am. It was -3 degrees out, we are so lucky it wasn’t the engine, etc and our heater continued to work.

I am TERRIFIED of wide, open spaces… in the country… AT NIGHT!!!! TeRrIfIeD. What a great way for me to face my fears. Oh yea, and Scarlett was sick. She caught a cold from dear cousins over Thanksgiving day. I had made a Doc appointment for her while we were in Vegas, assuming we’d get home that night. Nope….

We got towed back to Beaver. Stayed in a hotel room from 4:15am – noon check out time (SUPER LAME!!!) And hung out at the hotel’s lobby and breakfast room until we knew what the plan would be. My brother Ben came to the rescue. He borrowed his Dad in law’s truck, we rented a UHaul trailer, and we were towed back to Orem, getting in at 10pm. UGhghghgh, all along Scarlett’s goopy and crusted over, she's got a nasty cold and needed the doctor... Turns out later she had an Ear infection.

If you ever go to Beaver, chances are high you'll meet a Rick Jarvis. He's the tow man, UHAUL inventory supervisor, best mechanic in town, and . . . Bishop. We call for a tow truck - they sent Rick. Rick says he'll take our car to his shop, he's the main mechanic in town. Sweet. In the morning I call to find out if there's a trailer at the UHAUL place - they say I need to talk to Rick. Later in the day, I was trying to find a ride for us to get to the UHAUL Rental place. So I try to find a Relief Society president or bishop (through a local church branch of the same church we belong to) using lds.org. The only Bishop listed was a "Bishop Jarvis", I called the number and left a message at a home message machine. Later in the day I asked the lady at the front desk of the hotel "So... is Rick's last name Jarvis?" Her reply: "Yes ma'am". Of course it Rick! He is the man of the town. Oh, Rick also was buds with the hotel and got us a somewhat discounted price.

THAT Was our Thanksgiving adventure... INSANE!!!! Lets re-cap one thing here...
Thurs-Fri - Vegas, NV
Sat thru Mon - Iowa City, IA
Tues - Nauvoo, IL
Wed - Iowa City. IA
Thurs - Waterloo, IA
Friday-Saturday - Howell, MI
Sunday - Iowa City, IA
Monday- Beaver, UT
Tuesday - Home Sweet Home.

Insane.

with a 9 month old.

Christmas!!

2011-01-27T09:55:00.001-08:00

Christmas this year was different than any other Christmas I've ever experienced!! We were a family... of our own... in our own home. We got a real tree. We had our Miss Scarlett with us. We went to Christmas parties Every Single Weekend During December!

I Love The Holidays! I do. But ... the month goes crazy fast with all the Holiday Everything. You know what I'm saying.

We saw the Christmas Motab concert, with David Archuleta as the guest. LOVED IT. Really wish we had walked around Temple Square to enjoy the lights though, :( :( :(. Next Year.

Seth's work party was at the Grand America hotel downtown Salt Lake. It was a blast. About 1,000 people were there. They had a photo booth - That was a ton of fun. Random tables with good food on it, like a Chinese theme you could make up your own Take Out box... steak/potatoes/veggies, etc. . . finger foods . . . hot chocolate/coffee/bar. They had Xbox Kinect & wii's hooked up to huge TV's you could play different games on to get raffle tickets. We had a gigantic, everyone involved Rock-Paper-Scissors contest. They had the final 4 people who hadn't lost go up on the stage to finish it all out. 3rd place - SLR camera 2nd place - Gigantic TV 1st place . . . drumroll. . . . Trip to TAHITI!!! (worth $7,000). Insane.
They also had an ugly sweater contest - we all voted on a winner, who go $1,000 cash. Neon Trees performed at the end... 9:30pmish. They were amazing performers. It was a great evening.

My work party. Catered dinner at a UVU ballroom. Had a little co-worker baby face/current picture contest. And got our Christmas bonus. I'm glad there are cool girls I work with and we sat at an entertaining table.

Ward party... Christmas music, dinner. We mingled with one of the counselors in the Stake Presidency and his family. Turned out he went through the same Masters Program Seth is currently in the middle of with University of Phoenix. It was so awesome we could chat about how it's going, what it'll be like, get tips and advice, etc. It was super cool, and encouraging.

We had a Christmas Eve party with some friends and family. Seth's Sister and her family came, Phil & Sierra, My Brother Brian, and Ashley&Ian. We played a game, ate chili, visited, Exchanged gifts.

After everyone had left, we were very ready for bed, but we read the Nativity story from the Scriptures and cuddled on the couch with our beautiful Christmas tree across the room. I wish we weren't as tired as we were...

Christmas Morning!!! It was exciting! I had planned to make my mom's sweet roll she always makes Christmas Morning - but I didn't. :(. We opened presents. SCarlett was much more interested in the wrapping paper until we'd show her what toy would do what. Except for her pillow pet, she really lit up for that! She squeeled, and kissed it multiple times. It was pretty cute.

We skyped with Seth's parents as Scarlett opened up the gifts from Gmapa Burke. She loves the Baby Einstein piano they gave her. She also got a baby doll from them, her first one! And I was surprised how interested she was in it, and the look she gave it when she saw what it was. It was touching? Not sure what the word is... but I could see my little girl's heart become fond of it in an instant. It was cute.

My brother Brian came over late morning and we watched blue ray movies (we bought over Black Friday) on our new blue ray player. We watched the movies ALL DAY LONG! In our PJ's... in fact, we wore PJ's for the rest of the weekend!

Later afternoon we went to the Jarvinen's for family Christmas Day Dinner. It was pretty yummy!! Aubrey fixed up Ham, Potatoes, rolls, bean casserole, etc. etc. Amazing Pie w/ ice cream. Scarlett and Preston had a blast cruising around the apartment chasing each other. Well, I think Preston was just walking toward Scarlett and she would think he was chasing her and start laughing hysterically. Those two are soooo cute cousins together. It's crazy adorable. We played some games... went home and watched another movie. :).

And that was our Christmas! Seth got . . . a remote control helicopter, clippers for me to learn how to cut his hair, Inception, two neck ties, can't remember what else. I got perfume, cashmere hat/glove set, an awesome folding table I can craft/sew/scrapbook on. Family present - blu ray player w/ movies. Scarlett - pillow pet, reverence book, toy I can't explain from us. And the baby Einstein Piano, bib, doll from Gmapa Burke. AND she got a savings bond, Cute book, dress, and pocket nativity from Gmapa Hartley. Oh! Davin, bro in law, handmade me this really cool Japanese lantern. It's awesome! We have it hanging in our living room, but need to work out the plug in situation so we can use it. It's pretty amazing though. Seth got a Video Game and cousin Preston gave Scarlett this fun Kangaroo shapes toy that talks and sings. My brother Brian got us some cool movies, a vintage mickey mouse sweatshirt, and Scarlett - a cute hoody. It was such a great Christmas, look how blessed we are. And nothing tops the feeling of Christmas' spirit. Nothing tops the feelings sent straight from Heaven, and having the knowledge of our Savior, Jesus Christ's life in our lives.

That... was our Christmas. It was it's own different, special, exciting and fun Christmas season.

As of late...

2011-01-27T09:54:00.000-08:00

New Years was nice. We really just stayed in and had an evening to ourselves. We watched "How to Train your dragon". . . and had some Martinelli's together. Scarlett was fast asleep.

The new year is always an exciting time of year. . . the sense of renewing goals and starting fresh. But is always a downer in a way b/c . . . Winter is still here, There's no paid holiday at work until Memorial Day, and It's back to real life after the best time of year.

Scarlett hit 10 months at the beginning of the year. She gets cuter every day, it kills me. Her confidence in the last few weeks to walk has increased enough that she is letting go of furniture to take 6-7 steps to one of us or a different peace of furniture. At 10 months 3 weeks she randomly decided to crawl on all 4s. So random. We thought she'd never crawl!! She just has always been interested in standing and walking around furniture. But... a few days after she started taking her steps she just started crawling places. silly girl. Now she can sit up on her own from a laying down position too! It was like magic, within 2 days it was almost as if she decide to sit up, get up, crawl, and walk on her own.

I've really been learning a lot about her personality too. It's difficult to explain. She's happy, it's very easy for her to just look at you and smile for a while. She loves to clap, raise her hands in the air at "soooo big are you!". She's almost always crossing her feet in her car seat, high chair, sitting on my lap, even just sitting down sometimes. so cute. She likes to carry clothes or shoes around with her as she cruises furniture. She loves mirrors. She's getting the sippy cup down pretty good. She has a temper, gets annoyed or upset easily if she can't pick something up or I make her lay down to change her diaper, etc. She LOVES peek-a-boo, or leaning around a corner or chair to get your attention, and then she just grins a bit before she begins 'peek-a-boo'. She likes to get caught doing something she knows I ask her not to, especially turning the speaker/bass knob by the TV. She likes to be chased. She likes when mom chases her and dad around the house. Just recently, in the last few days she points, points at everything. Which is a developmental thing, I've read. And is way cute. She gets really excited to go places, or to be picked up out of her crib in the morning or from a nap. Everyone is her friend. She sees any younger child and gets so excited that she may get their attention. This is why primary is perfect for us.

Did you know she dances? :) She's been doing it for about 2 months now, but the girl loves her music. Well, she loves to dance. She doesn't need music really. She headbangs, hard. She loves to raise one hand in the air as she's nodding her head, it is hilarious. Absolutely Hilarious. She eats great, sleeps amazing. Loves bath time... A lot. Loves books, Baby Einstein, CHURCH, and Raja. She Loves, and Adores her daddy. She gets so excited to see him and watches him wherever he goes. Sometimes, when he is at work... she'll glance over at his chair to see if he's home. That melts my heart. We wait outside for him if it's nice out, when he comes home from work. Or we'll wait for him by the window, and she'll start waving. She loves her daddy!!

Sorry,I'm going on and on. I feel extremely blessed and forunate for this beautiful little girl in our life. I absolutely love my sweetheart and enjoy taking care of her needs.

Here we go!

2011-01-20T22:01:00.000-08:00

Are you ready for this? Scarlett has begun walking and crawling in the last three days. . . She showed absolutely no interest in crawling at all, her entire life. We knew she'd walk before crawling. She's always shuffling along furniture and walls, it's been for months now.

The last week or so Scarlett would take a 3-5 steps between Seth and I. But in the last three days she's decided to attempt crawling on all fours. No more of that side-leg-sweep-army-crawl thing she had going on.

Tonight Scarlett and I had a night with the girls while Seth was at class. Scarlett was walking to people and furniture on her own without us trying to get her to! It was so exciting, she's really getting her confidence up. AND she was crawling too!! Seriously, Just within those few hours, at a friends house she decided crawl AND really walk for the first time! She's definitely mobile now.

The poor miss has such a crappy cold right now though. She's been coughing and sneezing all night long. But it hasn't stopped her. Boy does she hate me wiping the snot off her face. :( She has actually had a cold since she got sick over Thanksgiving. She had Amoxicillin to treat an ear infection the first of December, and then they gave her a different antibiotic to treat a sinus infection just before Christmas. And through those two antibiotics she still had this cough, that is now much worse with this new cold she caught. Poor girl! I took her in to the doc again after the nurse suggested I should since the cough had been lingering past 6 weeks. Doc said it was 1. RSV or Bronchulitis. 2. mild asthma 3. pnuemonia. He said it couldn't really be 2 or 3, so he said it's 1. Which... I'm pretty sure she doesn't have RSV, b/c that would probably mean it's bad enough she'd need breathing treatments through a nebulizer, or she'd have a congested cough. Well, this cough of hers wasn't really congested, it was just there... or she'd have coughing fits throughout the night. I'm not really worried, but don't want to neglect anything if it is something to worry about. ANYWAY! Now... she really has a cough, and is much more sick than the lingering cough she had. But she still sleeps... still eats... still smiles, plays, dances, is happy! Sigh, she's such a keeper.

So! Now that that was completely boring, here's a video clip I got of her crawl tonight... should have busted out the camera for her walking - I'll get some tomorrow! So much stuff to catch up the blog with - Thanksgiving and Christmas time. We'll see... but just know - we're alive, happy, and busy, busy!

Why we'll have a christmas letter this year

2010-12-06T18:07:00.001-08:00

Shutterfly is advertising it's fantastic holiday photo greeting card collection by giving 50 free cards to those who write a post about them on their blog. I didn't know what we were going to do this year about a Christmas card, and was pretty settled that we weren't going to have one until I heard about this from a friend's blog. Shutterfly has a huge selection of beautiful holiday cards. I've gotten prints and photo books from Shutterfly before, so I'm extremely excited abot this offer.

This year I have ordered 3 of their photo books. It was so easy to use, I could just upload all the photos of the event I wanted to scrapbook, chose different page layouts, and I received the book within a week in a half. The quality is amazing, it's a user friendly website, and has a lot of options to do what you want. Now I don't have to spend hours printing digital photos and scrapbooking them!

So check out shutterfly! They have Christmas Photo cards, or just Holiday cards, and their Thank You cards are super darling as well. They also do canvas wall art, and their prices are reasonable. They have awesome deals throughout the year too.

Thanks Shutterfly, for being easy to work with at a great price I can afford!

Nine Months Down....

2010-12-03T15:10:00.000-08:00

Little miss is 9 months old today!

Height: 29.1 in (93%ile)
Weight: 18.2 lb (39%ile)

This may just be plain mean

2010-11-05T21:06:00.001-07:00

I should just wait until tomorrow morning when I can get a good picture with an actual camera. But little miss got her ears pierced tonight.

It's probably mean I'm posting the video of her going through pain? But she did pretty well actually... just like her shots at the doctors, she cried at first and once we were holding her she was okay. Anyway... the lady who pierced them said she did great!

At first when we were talking about doing this months ago, Seth said he didn't want to be there. But of course he came, and he was the cutest dad ever. One of us was suppose to hold her, and he quickly said "I'll hold her." And after they were pierced the lady was showing us how to clean her ears... and she asked if I wanted to just do it, to make sure I was doing it right but Seth volunteered and said "no, I'll do it"... He later said he was expecting it to bleed, or be worse. He kept checking on Scarlett and talking to her about it, etc. He is just such a sweet daddy to his little girl. Anyway. The lady did a great job! They're positioned great and it was fast.

Scarlett did pretty good! And they are good and pretty!!

The miss is 8 months!

2010-11-03T22:01:00.000-07:00

Scarlett got her first tooth last week! So it's been a 'fun' time at night lately. She does pretty well with oral gel, so we're doing alright. Sometimes she'll be crying and I'll just take her out to the living room and we'll lay down together. I'll rub her back until she's calmed down and sleeping again , and then put her back to bed. Or she'll come into our bed, but I'd like to not make that a habit. Oh the joys of teething! It's just the start of a long road, I can feel it.

She is obsessed with standing and walking (with our hands for balance or along furniture). She gets so bored sitting and playing now. Which is exciting for us to see her excited to get around. She's not a fan of her tummy still, but she's getting more use to it and she might crawl one of these days. I'm grateful she isn't mobile though, not mobile yet. But she sure is rolling everywhere.

Either Raja is stupid, and goes to Scarlett for attention to only get gauged in the eye or ears pulled. OR Raja likes Scarlett. Either way, they usually do play nice. She's very vocal. She'll mumble herself to sleep, talk a lot when she wakes up, and make all sorts of noises in the back seat looking out that back window as we're driving. She laughs a lot, and screams a lot. Yes, screams. . . when she gets excited, mad, sad, or just when she feels like it. Sometimes she likes to inhale as much air as possible and let it all go fast in a very high pitch, like she's in terrific pain, and then just stop when the air is all out and look around like nothing happened. She does this at the most appropriate times too - like in the middle of a restaurant, or primary when we're substitute teaching. It's as if she doesn't get enough attention or something?

Our recent favorite is laughing with each other, spontaneously, for a long time back and forth. It's so random, but if I laugh a lot, she'll laugh along with me and we just keep going and going back and forth. She also likes the "I'm going to get you" game when she's in dad's arms and I'm coming for her. Or peek-a-boo. She loves Baby Einstein still too.

She is a CUTIE! And her cheeks just don't go down, they may just be getting more full actually. She is a great baby, we are so blessed.

Happy 8 months miss!

Church Halloween Party

2010-10-24T16:13:00.000-07:00

Last night was our church's Halloween Party! It was a chili cook off too, Mm- Mmm!

Aubrey and Preston came along with us. We enjoyed a very yummy dinner of Chili and cornbread - soooo yummy. There was fun music, and door prizes. I'm impressed with how well Scarlett and Preston did with their costumes on. Scarlett's skunk headpiece fits her pretty snug. She does not have a small head! But she did pretty good with that thing squishing her cheeks most of the night.

We did a little trick or treating at some doors in the church. (So much better than trunk - or - treating!) Each one had a theme... like Carebears, fall, camping. There was a fog machine too. Scarlett's first door of trick or treating... She reached into the bowl, grasped TWO candybars and while scooping it out of the bowl she got another candybar to land right into her candy bag. It was awesome. She's a pro! No need to show her how the game works, she knows!It was a fun time! She was a hit! One little boy in a dinosaur costume kept pointing at her and laughing... I guess that could mean he was making fun? But I'm pretty sure he was just impressed with how cute she was.

I'm excited for Friday. Seth's work, Adobe, really goes all out for Halloween. This year's theme is "Board games" And Seth's department chose "Monopoly". He is in charge of building the Community Chest, which will hold the candy/prizes for the kids. We built it yesterday... We had to do it INSIDE the apartment because it's been raining all weekend. Fortunately the rain stopped for a little bit and we could cut half of it outside. We had to sweep multiple times and I'm sure we'll find more saw dust in random places, But it's pretty good! We put a false floor in it, so there's only 6 inches of room to fill up with candy/prizes. A co-worker is going to paint it this week. And Scarlett and I will get to walk around and trick or treat some more Friday at his work. We'll dress her up for my work party too! And then Saturday!! We'll go visit family and she'll get to wear the costume again. Yay for being able to use a costume you pay for more than just one day!!! Wait until you see Seth's costume... if I can pull it off.... he's going to be the battleship piece from Monopoly.A bonus photo of our cute little one I took while working on this post... She's so smiley and happy. We're so lucky to have her!!

I know it's been a while...

2010-10-20T21:07:00.000-07:00

This is the 3rd of 3 new posts... so far...Scarlett is 7 1/2 months old now. We got some 6 month photos of her a month ago. We went up to the canyon and my friend/co-worker w/ her sister took some photos for us. They're awesome!

We got some Family photos and Some Scarlett photos. . .
Family:

Scarlett: I made her tutu - I used way too much tulle. But they are cute photos...

And isn't this one so cute of Seth and I?
I love her... So many facial expressions. This one is perfect... she's pretending that she doesn't like my kisses. (But really, she loves them.)
She was very tired by the end... we had to work pretty hard to get real good ones out of her... It was a good experience though. Thanks Bethany and Shanowa!! They look great!

Life is Good

2010-10-20T20:46:00.000-07:00

We have been busy. . .

Last Sun night - Wed night we babysat my niece and nephew. My brother and sister-in-law went on a trip to the Bahamas. (nah... we weren't jealous) It was Fun! It was hard at times... I was a mom of THREE!

I think it was a success! Monday we did the preschool thing, G (nephew) and Scarlett napped from the moment we dropped O (niece) off until I had to get them in the car to pick her up. It was awesome. We watched a bit of netflix Monday but played a bit too. G loves Raja. At one point I caught him actually laying on top of her, full body length and bouncing... Stupid cat just laid there. Monday night we played at the playground a bit before getting ready for bed... they slept sooo well :)

Tuesday we ate lunch and dinner at a playground, good thing it's been perfect weather until the sun goes down. Wednesday night we went to a bigger playground and they had a ton of fun... G was way too adventurous for his own good! But Seth had a good eye on him. My favorite was waiting for G at the bottom of a slide that had a cover over it, like a tube and then Seth had come down with Gage... uh, pretty sure Seth should never do that again - I'm surprised he didn't get stuck. But it was fun... and got some McDonald's ice cream after.

Scarlett didn't sleep well Tuesday night, so I'm afraid I was impatient with O Wed morning. We were getting all ready for preschool and Baby Einstein was on for Scarlett ... O kept watching as she was trying to eat her pancakes and get her backpack, shoes and socks on, etc and I was getting upset w/ her that she wasn't focusing on just getting ready. ( I should have turned off the TV!) But we were walking out the door and I said "I'm sorry, I just don't want you to be late, but we already are". And she said "You ALWAYS make me late,and my mom ALWAYS makes me late!!!" it was humorous... In the car I was trying to explain it was frustrating for me to try to get her to focus because we were in a hurry but she just kept watching TV or not eating her breakfast. She was so innocent... "But I just am trying to understand what you're telling me Megan, but I just don't understand you." hahaha, she's cute.

We made and decorated Halloween ghost/pumpkin/cat sugar cookies. She wrote and illustrated a story book for Garrett (my lil bro on his mission) ALL BY HERSELF! (I wrote it, she told me... it was quite random but cute). We made some hand print (fingers) spiders... and dipped her foot in white paint to put on black paper which made ghost. (heel is the head, her toes/ball of foot was the body). It all went great.

I enjoyed having them, we fit a lot of fun things in. I'm not going to post photos of their bath time.. but having 3 in a tub - they had a blast! But, I will say... I'm glad kids come one at a time and you space them out as long as you'd like :)

I've been stealing...

2010-10-20T20:29:00.000-07:00

I've been KSL shopping a bit lately, classifieds. Yesterday I found Scarlett's Halloween costume ... $10 and it's SOOO oooo cute!! We've been looking for a while, searching for a good costume but inexpensive. This lady accidentely ordered two costumes a few years ago, and the extra has been sitting in the bag, brand new. I want to keep it a surprise, but telling you right now - it's SO Cute!! And it was brand new, out of the bag for $10. Such a steal...

Today I've been KSL shopping for winter clothes... Especially pants and shoes for Scarlett. We had to drive to Eagle Mountain (a good 30 min) to get it but! We scored a girl's snow suit and winter coat for $15. Brand new... tags were still on them actually... the winter coat was originally $50 and the snowpants $30. A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! She looks SO cute in it! The snow pants fit perfectly. And the coat isn't too bad either. We also got her a pea coat that's grey, from KSL - that was $8.... not as awesome as the snowsuit or costume, but she needed it.

So! Bring on the snow!! Scarlett is ready... well, she needs some mittens and boots. But we're getting close to ready for some sledding and playing. We are excited!

My Birthday...

2010-09-27T16:27:00.000-07:00

I'm 28!

I had such a fabulous birthday this year. I think it's majorly because I'm just really happy with my life right now. But I got to kind of sleep in. We had Norwegian pancakes for breakfast, we visited with friends, I went to the RS broadcast, and then made apple crisp with Seth for as my birthday treat. (not a fan of cake). We ate it with amazing ice cream and played Bohnanza with Dav/Aub and Cousin Dave.

It was just a good day. My main birthday present!?!
A 4th Generation ipod touch! from Seth. I play his ipod every night before I go to bed, so I think he decided he's sick of that and I needed my own. This is such a fun toy, and resourceful too! I can get unlimited games, music, facebook, news, etc. internet access and the whole Gospel library is on mine now. I even have a Christmas countdown going! :) And baby flash cards! And a peek-a-boo game with animals for Scarlett!! Endless fun...

$1.00!!!!

2010-09-27T15:55:00.001-07:00

Since coming home from Japan over 5 years ago I have had at least a dozen dreams of flying back to Japan JUST so I could go to the hyaku yen store. No joke. I get off the plane, go to the hyaku yen and spend hours there (some have multiple floors, a DOLLAR store with multiple floors!!!)and then get on the plane to fly back to America. Japan has AMAZING dollar stores.

We live across the street from K-mart. Hmm, maybe I should say that so openly... I understand that spells out G-H-E-T-T-O. But really, our condo complex isn't bad. But two doors down is The Dollar Store.

I went there today.

I Am So Excited!!!!!!!So... I haven't owned an umbrella in YEARS b/c I've never felt like I could just pay $10+ (cheapest i could find) for something I only use maybe three times a year. Well, I bought TWO today! One for each car... $1.00 each. (well, DI is also a good source to find a cheap umbrella)
I've always wondered about how much dryer balls could do for us. I've heard good things, my grandma has them... But they're $5.00+ at wal-mart or wherever I go. I just never have been ok with paying up for little plastic spikey balls. Well, I'm going to try them out finally, $1.00.
I've wanted to get Scarlett foam blocks or letters/shapes to chew on and play with in the tub, etc. I had some in my cart once, I think they were like 40% off at Carter's and it was still going to cost me $4.00+. We didn't NEED them, and figured it could wait until next paycheck. Well - I got her letters and numbers, $1.00 each.

They have awesome educational board books about states, the presidents, etc. Scarlett's not quite ready for those so I passed, but I know where to find them. They had tons of educational posters you can put on your wall to learn words, the alphabet, etc. That you'd see in any elementary school classroom. A HUGE variety of gift bags (always more than $2-3.00 at wal-mart). Lots and lots of halloween decorations/costume accessories. I know some things there you can find for cheaper elsewhere. And while you can find a legit Sharpie brand permanent marker there - it most likely doesn't have as much ink in it as you would buy from a different store. (??) I don't just load the basket with all these "good" buys - but there are some really good deals.

Like the detangler I bought Scarlett at Target a few weeks ago - same stuff, larger variety, same brand for $1.00. OR Her little hair elastics for her hair that I got at Target that had 150 pieces in the package and was like $2.99 - Well the dollar store had a pack of 750 elastics, same size/color. I'll go there when I need me some more elastics... And I did get her a pack of 6 headbands for a buck.

You know how coupons are rarely for items you actually use? I am always looking through the store ads and Red Plum coupons, etc. that come in the mail box or at our door - but I maybe find one or two coupons for something I actually already buy/use. Well, I spent $13 for items I had been looking at getting, needing, wanting for months now! I'm a TOTAL fan of the dollar store... They also sell a good variety of fake flowers that are perfect for taking apart to make flower hair clips. Anyway! I'm sold...

so...

2010-09-24T22:31:00.000-07:00

I didn't know what to really put as this post's "title". I just feel like blogging... it's been a while... Seth's on the phone chatting away, I should go to bed, but I just feel like I should blog one. . .

Tomorrow, I turn 28 yrs old. Actually, specifically at 5:55 am I will have been on this Earth for 28 years. hmm. A few weeks ago I was going through my baby scrapbook. There were a few inserted folded up pages that was actually a questionnaire my mom and dad filled out. I'm guessing my mom's Lamaze teacher (?) had them fill it out b/c it's all questions about how and if the Lamaze techniques helped my mom. She must have taken a class? I don't know - I guess I should ask her.

But it was pretty neat to read through these answers and learn about my own birth story. Apparently mom had lots of false contractions with me and waited to go to the hospital b/c it she didn't want to be turned away if she went and wasn't really in labor. (Every expecting woman's fear, right?) But it started about 3 am. . . after a bit she decided to wake up my dad b/c... well, she says in her own words "... I hadn't done the times before, I figured since he didn't have to go to work the next day he could at least walk this time off with me."

Water broke at 3:40am, they were in the labor room getting prepped at 4:05. On this paperwork she talks about how she kept trying to relax, but would forget to until dad would remind her. and in his handwriting it says "You could plainly see by her facial expressions that she was very tense a lot of the time. But you could also see her relax instantly when you reminded her to. ... She did a beautiful job for our beautiful baby. "

At 5:40 they were on to the delivery room. Interesting that they had to go to a different room for all that... I'm grateful I didn't have to be switching rooms once I was admitted with Scarlett until all the fun stuff was done. But 15 min of pushing and I was out! All 8 lbs 11 oz of me! Big baby... 21 inches long. (same as Scarlett - 21 inches part. Luckily scarlett was 7 lbs even)

I love this - Mom, "Even though she was #3 it was just as exciting and awesome as welcoming #1 into the world."

And then dad's input in it all...
Were you present during labor? yes!
During the birth? You Bet!!
Was the role of coaching satisfying to you? Definitely, It could have lasted longer though, wasn't much to coach.
What could have been stressed more? early morning food for the coach. (haha, what a man.)
Do you feel you were adequately prepared for coaching? 3:30 in the morning... more sleep would have helped.... yes.
Additional comments - I thought your class was excellent, So good of a refresher that I don't think we'll have to take another one until our 6th or 7th child.

There are 7 kids in my family... funny how he knew the future.

ANYWAY! Happy 28th birthday to me. The gals at work decorated my desk very nicely on Thursday, So I've been soaking it in the last two days. And today at work we had cookies! AND we all left 2 hours early!!! I know, right? getting off early on Friday for my birthday!! Nah... everyone left early b/c the computers were down. (something about a gas pipe being cut into in Texas? uh... yea, that's what they said)

I've been wanting to go to Trafalga to go to the batting cages and mini golfing with Seth for my birthday. I had it in my mind all week. But then today I looked at our bank account and figured that wouldn't be a good idea since we're going out for Birthday lunch tomorrow... But Tonight was SO awesome and fun. I loved it all even though it wasn't what I thought I had to have for a perfect Birthday date night. We went to Jdawgs (the best hot dogs) and saw "Knight and day" at the dollar theater. It didn't matter what we did, we could have just driven around happy town Provo and it would have made the night just as awesome. B/C... Seth held my hand every second, opened the car door for me each time, and kept rubbing my shoulder and pulling me closer to him during the movie. That's all that made my night. Silly, silly...

Afterwards we went to Red Mango for frozen yogurt. Mmm Mmm... I Love Red Mango!! It was a fantastic evening.

Alright, time for bed. The video at the beginning of this post... I forgot to give it a caption... Scarlett is obsessed w/ our living room mirror. If we're holding her in the 'dining' area she'll see herself across the room and scream/giggle at herself in the mirror. It's hilarious. Tonight she did that, and Seth walked her over to it and she just starts laughing at herself. . . And gave herself kisses/sucked on the mirror over and over and over. She is TOO cute, I can't get enough of it.

After waking her up from geting her out of the car seat to put her to bed... changed diaper/Pj's on - she fell asleep in my arms and I was just holding her in my arms, rocking her like I would when she was a few weeks old and it was the best feeling. I'm already sad she won't just let me lay her on her side, in my arms and sway with her without her fighting to be sitting upright in my arms to look around or to go somewhere. That was the cherry on top of this perfect evening.

Time to go to bed so I can wake up and get my present from Seth!!! I know what it is... but I'll have to post about it next time so it's kind of a surprise to someone...

Babbling now... too tired... G'night!

2010-09-14T12:16:00.000-07:00

Six Months Old!

2010-09-03T00:00:00.000-07:00

Wow! The crazy part about Scarlett being 6 months old is not that she is 6 months old... but that we've been parents for half a year! Time Flies.

Scarlett is becoming the most fun, independent little gal. Our pediatrician was impressed with her development and interaction with her during her well-check visit. And... She Doesn't Need A Helmet!! The helmet talk came up at the 4 month check, but it's rounded out quite nicely.

Here she is after getting her 6 month shots... happy as can be! I let her choose between a Cinderella princess sticker or a Tinkerbell sticker. She chose tinkerbell, and is wearing it proudly.

6 Month Stats:
16.3 lbs (60%ile)
26.25 in tall (70%ile)
17.25 in noggin (85%ile)

At 6 months Scarlett loves:
-Baby Einstien, she especially smiles at the green dragon in the Shakespeare episode
- FOOD! This girl is a pro eater so far, Mmm Mmm baby veggies.
- sleeping on her side
- taking her binkie out to play with, it's like accomplishing a Rubik cube for her to put it back in right to suck on again, but she has done it!
- growling and grunting ALL DAY LONG
- walks in the stroller
- sucking on her feet
- lunging toward Raja if she gets close to reaching distance
- Crinkly paper/baby wipes bag - anything that makes that kind of sound
- bathtime
- dad's hair. She always "pets" Seth if he is holding her, it's hilarious
- giving kisses to mom, dad doesn't quite accept them yet - too slobbery
- rolling from side to side as she's eating/holding her bottle.
- Shanowa, a co-worker of mine. She can really get Scarlett giggling!
- laughing w/ mom and dad
- looking in mirrors
- Raja

Scarlett does not like
- laying on the floor (unless it's with a bottle in her hands)
- not a fan of tummy time
- car seat, unless it's moving
- getting dressed

Mom and Dad LOVE that Scarlett...
- holds her own bottle
- Is a fantastic sleeper
- Is So DARN CUTE!!!! A baby cannot get cuter than she is.
- talks and interacts with people so much

We are very blessed to be her mom and dad.

starcraft 2 is taking over....

2010-08-23T21:19:00.000-07:00

One of Seth's favorite childhood computer games was Starcraft. Well... they came out with Starcraft 2 last month (?) and he has managed to fit it in his schedule. I'm assuming this is what he dreams about since the following occurred last night...

2:00am. In bed. Seth is asleep, I can't sleep (that's what I get for taking a nap from 2:30-5:30 with Scarlett Sunday afternoon.)

Seth : Gmlk mulk

Megan : What?

Seth : Good LUCK

Megan (knowing he was talking in his sleep) : Why?

Seth : To get through the levels. Can't stop. (very clear voice, creepy clear.)

Megan - lays in bed trying to not be creeped out that she can talk to her husband while he's asleep, unable to fall asleep even more. Gets a little bit of sleep before Scarlett wakes up at 3 am requesting food.

I think someone has been playing too much Starcraft.

Our weekend...lots of photos!

2010-08-22T21:54:00.000-07:00

Friday when Seth got off work we went up to Park City for the night. A friend was house sitting and didn't want to stay there alone. It was a pretty neat house, I really wish I had taken some more photos! It was a nice little vaca from the 'happy valley'. Park City is so pretty, and has such a different feeling than any other place in Utah. I love it!

These people have a bulldog named Ginger, I'm not sure Scarlett's ever been so close to a dog before - but Ginger loved our attention and Scarlett thought Ginger was the absolute weird/crazy thing she's ever seen. I could not stop laughing at Scarlett's faces while she was trying to make sense of this new creature. Aaahhh, it's so fun to see her discover this world.

Look at these faces!!!

Mom, What in the world is THIS thing!?!

Kisses for Seth...
...and kisses for Scarlett!

She loves crinkly wrappers.... "Must - have - in - mouth!"

And here are a few of her amazing bed head....

I love being Scarlett's mom! It was a very enjoyable weekend...

my favorite new trick

2010-08-22T21:42:00.000-07:00

Well, not too new... it's been a few weeks now. But the Miss holds her bottle all by herself! This development is just amazing! It's not like we've been trying to teach her, but I have always tried to make sure she always had at least one hand on the bottle. Then one day she had it down all by herself!
She's going through a weird stage right now, I really wish she could talk to me. She rarely finishes her usual 5 oz bottle - it's been a huge waste of formula!!! Sometimes she'll only eat 3 oz, usually 4 though. Because she's eating cereal now, I just never know how much of what she'll want to take in.

Usually toward the end of eating what she wants she'll start rolling around and talking/playing with the bottle. So I'll lay on the floor w/ her and keep her focused... or try to hold her and feed her - but then she bucks her back and wants to sit up or stand up if I'm going to be holding her. She sure is showing some independence now... that's for sure!

Happy Birthday!

2010-08-22T21:20:00.001-07:00

To sweet, sweet Grandma Cleo... She turned 74 on Friday the 20th!We are lucky to live so close to my grandparents. I do take this for granted. Scarlett and I went and visited "GG" Friday afternoon for her birthday. There have been a few afternoons since Scarlett has been born where I have gotten to go to Pleasant Grove and just visit with GG for an afternoon, with no one else around to take her attention. She tells me stories that I most likely wouldn't get to hear during the usual family gatherings. For example, when my mom was Scarlett's age she would Turn The Pages Of A Magazine. You know... most 6 month babies just want to crumple the paper and stick it in their mouth the second they lay eyes on it. But she says "you kids don't really understand what I really mean when I try to tell you that you're mom is perfect." Which we all do know. But... turning the pages of a magazine as a baby? amazing.
She also tells me stories of her mom and dad. And I talk to her about the latest questions and situations I've been 'faced' with... and she gives perfect advice/suggestions or validation. I love grandma. And happy she had a great birthday...
My grandpa so cute, Just got to say it. Friday he made me his favorite snack... "Pepsi and Peanuts". Yep... a can of pepsi in a mug w/ a bunch of peanuts floating at the top. Such a nice grandpa.

And Today is my hunk-a-brother Aaron's 23rd Birthday!!!
Aaron is one of the neatest people you'd ever meet. This man can be flying high on life with just the littlest things in life, especially being surrounded in nature. He's so nice to strangers, giving of his time and talent to all. He is so great with kids, he adores Scarlett and the rest of his nieces/nephews. He is easy to smile and laugh and joke around. His simple way of life and dealing with situations is truly an example. This summer, and I guess through this fall too, he is a camp counselor. Making nothing for wages, it's absolutely his dream job. We love him! And are sad he's so far away, but I think he's had a fun day. ;) Happy Birthday Aaron, We Love you!

'em ... she likes her sno-cones...

2010-08-08T09:33:00.000-07:00

They had sno cones at my work party last night... Scarlett wants her hands in everything now - and then up to her mouth. So with her hands held down to her sides, we gave her a taste... and she didn't want the tastes stop.

These photos were taken with my left hand... my right arm/hand was holding her and her left hand, so they're not the best photos :)

Raja and Scarlett chilling together...

Iowa 2010 LoooOOOng Post.

2010-08-03T22:22:00.000-07:00

On June 30th... We flew to Chicago. Scarlett did SO great on the flight. Luckily we didn't have a layover. I was excited to see if she'd react to the plane taking off or landing, b/c it was loud, etc... nope - didn't phase her.
Seth's parents picked us up from the airport. They were on their way from Michigan to Iowa, worked out great! We drove 4? hours to his grandparent's house in Waterloo Iowa. It wasn't very ideal - to fly all morning and drive all afternoon - but it worked out just fine, and cheaper too.

Scarlett & Grandpa Burke

So we got in Wed night, the big party was Saturday. Seth's grandpa Rudy Oesterle turned 80 in June and July 3rd was the BIG 'surprise'(someone spilled the beans) birthday party. It was so nice to have Thurs/Friday to do whatever... Seth and I actually went to the movies both nights! Scarlett was taken care of by her grandma and pa Burke. One night we saw A-Team (awesome) and then Grown Ups (eh... adam sandler, what do you expect?).

Saturday! SO MANY PEOPLE CAME!!! It was very cool to see how many people came, and from far away places, to celebrate Rudy. He is an absolutely amazing man. It was fun to see lots of cousins and aunts/uncles. Scarlett was a hit - since pretty much everyone was meeting her for the first time. The day was Hot, hot, hot though...I Love Iowa! But I do not miss how it is SO HOT & HUMID!!!!!

playing with dad's hair while falling asleep...

Saturday night, after the party, we got to enjoy a mini firework show. And we had a bonfire... and roasted HUGE marshmallows. Seth made me the absolute best s'more I've tasted in an extremely long time. And the stars were out... and some of the fireworks got out of hand and came STRAIGHT toward the table we were all sitting at and gathered around. Aaahhhh, lots of laughs and fantastic memories were made that evening. I really enjoy those extended family reunions on Seth's side of the family. Fantastic, Great people.

Gma Burke bought Scarlett these new PJ's - Scarlett LOVES, loves looking at the dots.

So - Happy July 4th!! I dressed Scarlett up in a ridiculous outfit for the holiday. She got a white hat before she was born that had 'Babies first 4th of July" on it. And I got a onesie from Old Navy that was red and said "Mommies firecracker" or something like that. A white skirt, and red shoes (that were given at a baby shower). W/o the hat it was pretty darn cute... but I think the little bonnet was a bit much. ah well, she's super cute no matter how ridiculous you dress her up.

slide show of ALL the Iowa photos...

Monday July 5th we drove down to Nauvoo, IL with Seth's parents. My younger brother, Garrett, went through the temple, and we all got to join him for that special occasion. He has been called on a LDS mission to Ventura, California. He'll enter the Missionary Training Center, here in Provo, on September 1st and learn Spanish before heading out to California to share the Gospel!!

After that wonderful temple experience, we got to eat at the glorious Hotel Nauvoo buffet - Mm Mmm. And enjoyed a 'relaxing' evening. We all stayed at my family's house. Seth and his parents left for Utah Tues early morning. :( He had to go back to work and school... luckily his parents were going to visit Seth's siblings out here.

I hadn't been away from Seth for more than maybe 5 days since the day I met him (over 5 yrs ago) and that maybe 5 days was just a few weeks after we started dating. I didn't know it was possible for me - but I spent the next two weeks on my own with Scarlett visiting my family. I was dreading those 2 weeks, but I am so glad everything happened how it did. Absence Makes The Heart Grow Fonder.

Scarlett and I spent the rest of the week in Nauvoo. It was absolutely amazing. My mom and youngest sibling, Kara - were in the Nauvoo Pageant for the rest of that week. Some of you know, but my family participated in The City of Joseph pageant for years and years and years... it was THE event of the year all growing up. I was in it for 11 consecutive years, and a few times when I was too young to really remember. Many of my extended family would participate too. It was 2 weeks of long, hard hours in the Hot Hot sun in muggy Illinois. And it was full of every kind of experience and opportunity that shapes/molds any person to be a better, stronger individual.Mom, Kara, me, Scarlett... after a show

Scarlett and 'Joseph Smith, Jr' played by Jeff... back stage. Skip this if you'd like - it's long and more of a journal for me than for you to really be interested... The City of Joseph's last year was 2004. I was on my mission. It still stings a little that I missed that last year. I remember so clearly, a summer night in Japan - on my mission. My companion and I had biked an hour+ to visit a member, but they ended up not being home. So we sat along the curb and wrote her a note from each of us. I had looked up in the sky, and saw the Big Dipper in the NW sky... Every spring/summer growing up I'd watch the big dipper slowly make it's way to the northwestern part of the sky, where it exactly lines up during the last week of July, first week of August - pageant time. Instantly my heart sunk as I imagined what my family was all doing on the other side of the world... It was dress rehearsal night of the last year the pageant would happen. And my entire extended family was participating that year. (except my bestie cousin Abs, who was also on her mission). I tried to explain to my companion, who was Japanese and didn't know any english, how I was feeling. I just kept saying in Japanese "HUGE PARTY, all of my family. only one time each year, but this year is the last one. in Nauvoo, my Whole Family HUGE PARTY... HUGE show, church show, my WHOLE family... etc. etc" Aaahhhh, it's so clear in my mind! I cried the entire bike ride home. It was the first time, and only time I felt that I was truly sacrificing a part of me to be serving the Lord on a LDS mission for 18 months.

Whew. The week Scarlett and I were able to be there - was so incredibly nice. It was the first time since the pageant in '03 that I had spent 'me' time in Nauvoo for that long. And it was SO nice to just be there with Scarlett. We sat in the audience and watched the pageant every night we were there. I loved looking for my mom and Kara on the stage every scene. I cried, I laughed, pondered, felt the spirit SO strong, and smiled a ton. The pageant they have running now is extremely different than the City of Joseph I participated in, but it brought back so many memories. Actually, you really can't compare the shows. City of Joseph was a theatrical musical. the Nauvoo Pageant today is more a musical, but has a very different story, actually has a story line and teaches the Gospel in a very moving, thorough way. I really like the new pageant. Not that I like it more or less than City of Joseph - it's just not comparable - they're two completely different shows.

muggy illionois evening... I didn't want any mosquitos to get her... I promise, she could breathe.

I Love My Mom!
I made lots of memories with my mom and kara. Alicia was there for the first few days with her kids. We went to the Fudge factory. Got gelato numerous times. saw the Young performing missionaries show in the visitors center (which was actually extremely lame than what the show was before 8 years ago). Got to see my dear friend Kasi French!!! We were EFY counselors together in '03! She sat with me and saved me by pacing with Scarlett a few times when she was pretty cranky/needy so I could enjoy the pageant. She's one of my favorite people in the whole world and it was just AWESOME she was there for thurs-sun.

(heading to the Fudge Factory)
Scarlett posing a super happy face in front of the Nauvoo, IL Temple
Slide show of all the Nauvoo photos...

So! That was Nauvoo... I could talk about it forever. Sunday after my mom/kara were all packed up and finished with their pageant responsibilities we headed home to Iowa City.

Scarlett got a fever in Nauvoo during the week... which went away after 12 hours - no biggie. Seth had said he had gotten a little sick sore throat/fever a day or so before Scarlett had hers (while he was in UT). Sunday night I had a sudden sore throat... and a somewhat high fever, same as Scarlett's - 102. I went to a urgent care monday morning pretty sure I had strep throat. . . but it came back negative and the nurse and I were both surprised by that. I hadn't asked her about these super strange 'bug bites' all over my hands though - forgot.

At dinner that night I was playing w/ scarlett and noticed she had two huge blisters on her toes... That night I'm talking to Alicia on the phone and she mentioned some of the little cousins got "Hand, Foot, Mouth" over the July 4th weekend. It all pieced together... mom read the symptoms off a website... starts with a somewhat high fever, then sudden sore throat. then sores on hands and feet. also could have sores in mouth. she described my symptoms exactly. I checked Scarlett's hands/feet... she had a few sores on her hands - but more so on her feet... Didn't know adults could get it! the incubation period is like 3-6 days... which explains scarlett's fever 4 days after being around the little cousins. And 4 days later my symptoms showed up... I'm sure Scarlett's slobbery wonderful kisses exposed me. And 10-20% of adults can get the sickness if they weren't exposed when they were kids. Huh... who'd a thunk? So... I was pretty miserable mon-tues... I got some crazy bad sores on my hands/feet... my sore throat sucked. My hands just hurt so bad to use... They looked like blisters or bug bites - like spider bites. The sores on my feet lasted longer - and it felt like I was walking on nails every step. Yea... it sucked. No clue why kids have to suffer such a thing!!!

Tuesday night mom, dad, kara, a friend of Kara's, scarlett, and I actually went BACK to Nauvoo to see the pageant... I know, right? well... Kara's friend wanted to go. Kara wanted to super go to see all her boy friends from the 'core cast' and dad was going to drive them... so mom was going to go with dad... and what was I going to do? sit at home alone in Iowa City? Nope... so we drove the 3 hour round trip to see the pageant again. My parents holding a sleeping Scarlett :Wed morning Kara, Scarlett & I road tripped up to my sister Alicia's family in Prarie Du Chien Wisconsin. We were there a short 24 hours... But go to have some good times... pizza night, choco chip cookies, chick flick, painting nails, watching heat lightning out the big living room window... Beck and ELLIA are always a hoot... It was a great time, but still too short.

Thursday we drove home and stopped on the way to see my brother Aaron who has been a camp counselor at EWALU at Strawberry Point, IA this summer. It was a fun visit, as always. Aaron is such a good person. And he was absolutely BEAMING... he was doing everything he loves to do... he's doing fantastic. Plus, he adores Scarlett, and I love that.

The drive back to Iowa City took FOREVER... Kara was driving. Ha ha, not her fault... We just got 'lost' a few times... and took wrong roads (they were all back roads - random highways, etc) and SOMEHOW... somehow, we got home back to Iowa City. What is to be a 2 hour drive took us 4 though...

Waiting for us back in Iowa City was lots of the Hartley extended family... My dad's parents - grandma and grandpa Hartley came! And got to meet Scarlett for the first time!! It was pretty neat and fun... she was a hoot. And My cousins were there, aunt joette... it was a good time. I got lots of photos. My great aunt Myrna and uncle Jim came Friday morning to visit with Scarlett and I. That was really neat that they did that... and unfortunately Scarlett spit up on aunt Myrna 3 times... Yea, she for sure needed a change of clothes before she left the house, poor Aunt Myrna.
slide show of visiting family/friends in Iowa... and Scarlett meeting Great grandma and pa Hartley

Friday - I did some last minute things around town that I wish I was feeling up to at the beginning of the week. Scarlett went with my mom and Kara out to lunch with some of their friends so I could be more efficient. I got to visit Adam and Amanda Nielsen! They just had twin boys the week before I visited... so it was neat to see them. They were living out here in Utah andmoved there last fall for Adam to go to school. Small world.

And Friday afternoon... Scarlett and I got in the car with mom and dad to drive to Michigan! We were headed to a wedding reception in Livonia on Saturday night. We drove until we reached Battle Creek, MI (7 hours ish?) and stayed at a hotel Fri night. We made reservations too late to get a room w/ two beds - and so mom and dad got their own, Scarlett and I partied in another! At first I was a bit nervous/scared... I had never stayed in a hotel room by myself. But I had Scarlett there to protect me, and it was actually kinda fun. We slept in and left as late as possible - so nice.

The wedding reception was so nice. It was for Chase Tennant, the youngest in a family that lived in Iowa City when I was super young. His parents are fantastic friends of my parents. They were very surprised to see some Hartley's! And didn't know we were coming... even though it was a fancy RSVP wedding reception. It was from 3 to 9pm and we stayed until 7. Ring ceremony, dinner, cake, dancing... and of course some pictures. It was neat to see the Tennants again, they're a very cool and kind family.
hahaha, this photo makes me laugh... typical Scarlett.
Slideshow of our Michigan adventure....

We headed to the hotel in Novi to change and then went and saw the movie Inception. A-Mazing. Scarlett slept through the entire thing, what a good girl during her first movie theater experience. I definitely recommend Inception, quite a thinker movie!!

I really enjoyed, and needed, this time with my parents... It was so nice to just be me with them. How often does someone get to do that after they're married and w/ kids (or a kid)? I super love my parents and loved those days to be me with just them.

Up early the next morning... Sunday, headed to Howell, MI <-- Seth's home! We went to church at his home ward and sat with his parents. Scarlett and I said good bye to my parents after Sacrament meeting and they took a few days to 'vacation' on the way back to Iowa.

Scarlett and I stayed at church and got to be with Seth's parents for a few hours before heading to the airport. It was neat that it all worked out for us to end our midwest adventure in Michigan at Seth's home - but weird that we were there without him. Just different. Sandi made a very yummy dinner and I toured the house with many improvements since we were there for Christmas last year. Sandi has been B-U-S-Y!! And it looks Awesome! Steve enjoyed pacing with Scarlett as much as he could in the short time we were there.

Eating quick before heading to the airport.... with Gma BurkeThen they graciously drove us to the Detroit Airport for our flight that was to leave at 4pm. We got there at 3:00ish, said our "see ya later"'s and Scarlett and I were then on our last adventure - a evening full of airport and airplane time. The flight to Denver wasn't too bad... we had a 3 hour layover there. With the time change it was 5-8:30 pm we were just walking around. Scarlett loved the stroller time...
With all the excitement found in an airport, Scarlett had a very difficult time taking a nap, and staying asleep. We lucked out with a good 45 minute Zzz Zzzz time... but that wasn't enough... When we finally boarded the plane at 9... she wasn't having anymore of this traveling business. And she SCREAMED, for a very long time. to me it was a half hour, realistically I hope it was 10 minutes tops. No idea though, all I remember is I really didn't like my life at that moment. We were sitting at the window, two people to crawl over to get out - which I'm sure they would have very willingly, but I knew it wasn't an answer b/c she was just so exhausted and mad at the world. She was fine as everyone was boarding... and then they announced one of the computers was broken so it would be 30 minutes to fix. She didn't like that? She was so upset... and I just wanted to scream "Turn down the lights so kids can sleeeeeeep!!!". She finally, finally gave in. And life was all better. During those moments I wasn't too afraid of what people around me were thinking... maybe I should have been? But I think they all understood. There were two other young babies on the plane that were having quite an episode of their own after I had gotten Scarlett to sleep. I felt so bad for the mothers. One of which was sitting right in front of me, and was alone - no dad to help relax her or the baby. But! after an HOUR of sitting there, the computer was fixed... after another 30 min we were up in the air... b/c of the delay they provided us with FREE TV! woot. and we landed in Salt lake at midnight - two hours later than originally scheduled.

(taken when we boarded the plane in Detroit.)Yep - midnight in utah is 2pm Michigan time... we were at it for a good 11 hours folks! Whew, we sure were excited, happy, almost in tears to see DAD waiting for us first thing at the baggage claim!!! We got home at 1:30 am in our own beds... and Seth stayed home from work the next day to be with us! It was very nice.

That's our "Iowa" trip! Chicago,IL to Waterloo,IA to Nauvoo,IL to Iowa City.IA to Prarie Du Chien, WI to Strawberry Point, IA to Iowa City, IA to Battle Creek, MI (through indiana) to Novi-Livonia-Howell, MI to Detroit airport - Denver Airport - SALT LAKE! 6 states... Fun Adventures. What a book of a post, right? That was pretty much our month of July!

I'll post our June highlight in a different post.

Some summer fun photos...

2010-08-03T15:59:00.001-07:00

I really need to post about our big summer vacation (to the midwest to see family!) ... but here are some photos from seeing a movie in the park, new toys, and lots of smiles.

it's been a while...

2010-08-03T15:46:00.000-07:00

Ah sheesh! It’s been TWO months since I’ve posted anything? Well… our little miss is 5 months old today!! And this is her amazing 5 month photo shoot… ;)

5 months:

- Eats 5 oz every 3 hours, still.

- Enjoys Splish Splashing in the bath

- Laugh and giggles more and more… but it can take lots of work by mom or dad to get you going

- Hair is getting so Long and BLONDE! … still a very common topic of conversation

- Enjoys watching Baby Einstein – absolutely glued.

- Reaches out occasionally to mom or dad to be held

- Consistently sleeps 10-12 hours a night!!! – an amazing sleeper

- Cries out super loud and ends w/ a softer ‘grunt’ or “mm, mmm, mm , mmm, mm” as she chomps on her binky. A fantastic way to get and attention and to express herself

- Almost daily – hair in piggy tails

- Loves reaching for and grabbing raja

- LOVES sitting up or standing w/ assistance.

- MUST have a binky in order to sleep…. If she’s crying in bed, we just go in and put the binky in and she’s out w/in 3 sucks… or in the middle of the night, if she’s kind of waking up I’ll put her binky back in and she’s out again until morning. Very nice.

- Gives kisses.

- Has episodes of attack/slobber/scream/growl on mom’s face.

- Very vocal… as always. Her voice seems to be quite manly/raspy. And lots of grunts and sighs

- Can almost put the binky in her own mouth

- Sits up all by herself!!

- Can hold the bottle for about 10 seconds w/o help, sometimes longer!

- Sucks on thumb occasionally

- Smiles – A Lot.

- Loves her taggie… and new toys.

- likes to read books

Cutest baby I could have ever hoped for. We are SO blessed to be Scarlett’s parents and I’m excited to see how she continues to grow and develop.

Her 4 month stats?

14 lbs (63%tile)

25 in (81%tile)

the miss is 3 months!

2010-06-03T21:27:00.001-07:00

My Hero

2010-05-19T21:50:00.000-07:00

Cheesy... cheesy... cheesy. Fair Warning.

Did ya'll know my husband is a freaking stud? I've taken the man for granted lately...

While I get to stay at home with our beautiful daughter, work here and there a little, and do many things at my own leisure. Seth is slaving away at life. My husband is going to work full time AND grad school full time right now. And then when he is home he is still changing a poopy diaper, making a bottle, and rocking baby Scarlett to sleep.

Good thing he doesn't work until 9:30 in the mornings... because he pulls late nights working on his papers (3-5 pg papers due EVERY week), researching, preparing (almost weekly) presentations for his grad school classes. He works until 6:00pm and I try my hardest to have dinner ready to eat or in the works. And so far this week we haven't had any fast food!! (That is HUGE for us!!)

He has a demanding job. He's been at it for 2 months now - at Adobe. And finally done with most of the training, but its so intense stuff he is constantly learning new things. Which is such an awesome experience for him, and he is gaining so much knowledge. Plus there are optional certifications and further trainings he is preparing and studying for. These certifications aren't a requirement - buta special bonus of working for omniture - which makes you extremely marketable if you were to put it on a resume. Anyway, his job rocks, and he rocks at it. It's amazing how much he has learned in the last two months. After working there for just a month he was in a training meeting for the certifications (so a wide variety of employees who had worked there for any amount of years was attending) and one of the more veteran employees asked him afterward how long he had been working there (a month). He said Seth was the smartest client care guy he's met - based on the questions and comments Seth had made in the meeting. Such a stud.

So here is my sweet husband tonight - working on a 5 pager. I'm so grateful for his sacrifices to work toward a hopeful successful future ... I think we're on the right path.I love you babe. I'm excited to celebrate your birthday this weekend!