Sunday, March 31, 2013

DAY 572... My Easter Bunny

Today was a PERFECT Easter Sunday!!! Can I just you how AMAZING holidays are when you have a child? Everything from dressing them up, to buying them gifts, to just having your own little family to make traditions with and to laugh with. We laugh a lot in our house. Mostly it's Spencer laughing at me... I can be pretty entertaining when I'm super tired. 

We started out the day by listening to Aniston play in her crib in her room. She is so happy in the morning time, it's a blast listening to her sing and play with her bear. Speaking of this bear... I worry about him. His name is Sargento (first of all because I love cheese  and secondly because I think it will be funny to listen to her try to pronounce it in the future) and I have a suspicion that he is molested daily. Ani loves having him in her crib, since I don't let her have anything else, but that poor bear...

Once we got her out of her room we took her out to see her Easter basket. She thoroughly enjoyed it! Thank you Nana and Papa for sending some gifts! Daddy enjoyed and is still enjoying his iTunes gift card and I got this super cute sign that I have been wanting FOREVER! 




Let's talk about the stressful task of finding Aniston Kate an Easter dress. So I decided after Christmas that I wanted to find a dress with sleeves for Easter. Her Christmas dress had sleeves and I just think that it looks so much cuter than a sleeveless dress with a sweater... Plus she has plenty of those already. Everywhere I looked I couldn't find anything that I liked. So I began searching online, and everything was like $60. Seriously? For a baby dress that she is going to fit in for all of 2 months? I don't think so. When we were down in Utah a few months ago I saw this beautiful little dress at Target. We didn't buy it though because I figured I would find something better. Well I didn't. So I looked online at Target and the dress wasn't there! I searched under the brand and still couldn't find it. Then I went to the Target in Idaho Falls and they didn't have it! Basically I was freaking out. So when I went to cheer state and Spencer went to Utah we knew it was up to him to get that dress. Let's be honest... that made me incredibly nervous! Guys just don't view clothing the same as women do. But he found it, bought it, and Ani Kate wore it today! It was perfect! She wasn't really feeling up to picture taking, but we got a couple that will do.
 Aniston likes to experiment with smiles... This is her latest one... 

Apparently church on Easter Sunday is just too much for some people.

Aniston actually did really well today at church. So well in fact that we were able to stay for the entire 3 hours! She did decide around hour 2 to sing as loud as she possibly could... very entertaining. Very irreverent and disruptive, but still entertaining. Do I even need to mention how I cried like 4 times during church today? I am a crier! Not very awesome.. At one point I was flat out sobbing! Those darn Mormon messages. This was the one they showed today during Sunday School. I dare you to make it through this short video without crying. I double dog dare you!
All of these videos can be found on youtube under Mormon Messages, and they are all just so awesome! 

We stopped by the temple to take a few pictures as a family.


In case you're wondering why my child isn't wearing shoes... She pulled off her sandals and decided she would rather eat them then wear them. Gross.

We came home and ate our AMAZING Easter dinner which consisted of Ham with pineapple,  funeral potatoes, and deviled eggs with a roll. I know I skipped the veggies, but we ate them for lunch so oh well. Dinner also consisted of a lengthy conversation about whether or not funeral potatoes were appropriate to eat on Easter... Any thoughts?

We couldn't resist going for a walk since it was 61 degrees, in March, in Rexburg! It was BEAUTIFUL! We had to stop when we found a basketball... Aniston was definitely entertained by our attempt at playing basketball.



Now we're going to end our Sunday with the windows open, the season finale of one of our favorite shows, and some all fruit Popsicles. Sounds like the perfect Easter to me!
Have I ever mentioned how much I hate my man burns???? They show up in sooooooooooo many pictures. Like the one above. They ruin my pictures all the time!
Hope everyone had a wonderful day! 
HAPPY EASTER!!!!

Friday, March 29, 2013

DAY 570... Firsts At The Park

Finally Rexburg decided to warm up enough for us to be able to take Aniston to the park. I have been DYING to take her to the park! I keep seeing all of these adorable pictures of everyone else's babies in swings or on the slides, and I couldn't wait to be able to get Aniston to the park.!!! I am very excited about this so be prepared for an AMAZING amount of exclamation marks!!!

Yesterday when I got home from work, we took Ani Kate out to the little playground here at our apartment complex to play on the slide. Basically, she was not impressed, and it made me super depressed....
 She is so unimpressed at this point...



 This is her "really Dad?" face
 She was getting kind of mad at this point... Still think she is insanely adorable!
Seriously though, some of the best faces ever!!! Aniston is super animated; therefore, she is super entertaining! Works for me because I definitely couldn't handle a boring baby.

Don't even worry... I took a video of the very first time down the slide with Dad!

This morning I decided it was time to go to the park for a few minutes and give the swings a try.

BEST DECISION EVER!!!! Aniston loved the swings!!! 
These might be some of the best pictures of her! She could not stop smiling! I can't wait to take her back for more!




Look at her adorable bottom 2 teeth!!! I thought that I was going to miss her gummy smiles, but she got even cuter (if that's even possible) when her teeth made their appearance.
Okay... Seriously her dimples! I cannot believe how insanely lucky I am to have created such an adorable baby girl! 

This was the perfect age to take her to the park! It was obvious that she really loved the swings and it wasn't just in my head. I have a feeling that this summer is going to be the best summer ever!!!

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

DAY 567... Better Out Than In

As of today, my precious little Aniston Kate has been outside the womb 2 whole days longer than she was in there!!! I cannot believe how fast time flies! It seems like just yesterday I was pregnant, puking my guts out, getting IV's and PIC lines, being on best rest for months and months. But here I sit today watching my almost 9 month old crawl like a crazy little crawling thing. It's AMAZING!

For those of you who don't know I suffered from hyperemesis during my pregnancy. It was the worst pregnancy ever, but I would do it all over again for this little bundle of awesomeness. Even though we got pregnant within our first month of marriage and it was completely unexpected, it's one of the biggest blessings of my life! I can't imagine life without Ani and her gorgeous smile and funny hair. She is perfect and such a blessing!

Thank you Aniston Kate for coming 12 days early and relieving me of my 38 weeks and 2 days of barfing and sleeplessness. You're kind of my hero!







Isn't she just precious?????


Monday, March 25, 2013

Dear Aniston... Part 2

Dear Aniston,

I cannot believe how fast you are starting to grow up! It really does seem like yesterday that you were too small to help yourself and you relied on me for everything! Now you are crawling to get where you want to go. You feed yourself when given your bottle. You play by yourself and almost always require some amount of quiet time by yourself. I just can't believe how independent and beautiful you are! But please remember baby, even though you are getting bigger and growing older and are capable of so many things now, please remember that I love you and am willing to do whatever you need me to do. Don't forget to ask for help even if you don't want to. When it comes to helping you, I will never say no.

I love you Aniston Kate!

Love, Mom

DAY 565... Apartment Problems

Sometimes a person just needs to vent... and that's what's about to happen here.... I'm giving you a fair warning in case you don't enjoy venting...

We LOVE our apartment! It's really perfect for our little family. We have high ceilings, a ton of storage, and 2 bedrooms which works perfectly for Ani. However, we have run into a problem...
People have decided to store all of their junk right outside our front door!!! GROSS! Since we are on the bottom floor we have this ledge right outside our door that is under the stairs. Apparently people think that this means that they can put their junk there. Apparently they don't know me.

It's my opinion that if you choose to live in community housing, it's only polite to keep things clean and tidy. I understand that not all people choose to live a clean and tidy lifestyle, but when you live in community housing, you have no choice. It actually even says it in the contract that people sign when they move in that you need to keep it clean and that you can't store things under the stinking stairs.
And yes... That is a young boys sock there... Really??? Trashy. I don't want to appear trashy or gross! This really really bothers me!

Despite our efforts to have the junk removed, it still remains. Believe me when I say that I am tired of contacting the management. It's a little annoying that they can't even uphold their own rules. After I contacted them, the safety office (some of the stuff stored under the stairs is labeled corrosive... I have a baby really?), and the upper management, I finally got a promise that they would be removed by tomorrow. Keep in mind that this is after I was promised they would be removed on Friday.

Oh yeah... and that BBQ grill has been there since we moved in... a year ago! Nothing really bothers me more than people in charge not being capable of doing their jobs... (cough Obama cough).

Being a boss myself I understand how difficult it is to discipline and uphold guidelines and rules, but I have learned, most recently, that it's worth it. I recently had to bring down the house on my employees... slackers (really I love them though)... and apparently I earned a lot of respect from some of my employees for doing it. I know it's hard, but it's necessary! You can't be worried about  what other people are going to think about you... BE A MAN!!!

Venting Completed...

Sunday, March 24, 2013

DAY 564... Distractions

I find myself so much more often distracted in life now. I'm gonna blame it on Aniston Kate. She is just so darn cute! I am constantly taking pictures of her and wanting to spend time with her rather than doing the things that I probably should be doing.

Ani has been able to distract us pretty good this past week. She ate her first Oreo. This was not only hilarious but very very entertaining! She LOVED it! I think it makes her feel important when she gets to eat something that big people eat. Please ignore the wildness that is her hair. Spencer has decided this is his new favorite style... I'm not quite on board yet.

Ani Kate got her first toothbrush. Not sure whether or not she even really needs it since she only has 2 teeth, but since they make actual toothbrushes and toothpaste for babies her age, I figured it was worth a shot. I want this child to have beautiful teeth! She hasn't figured out how to do it on her own quite yet.... still adorable!

We bought Les Miserables. Of course on the day that it came out, bright and early. Is there any other time to buy it? I'm actually watching it as I type. Ani thoroughly enjoyed eating it before I took the plastic wrap off. Did I tell you that I discovered how they could have made this movie even better than it already is? Picture Gerard Butler as Javert.... PERFECTION! I really should be a Hollywood casting agent right?

A first for Mom this week... I actually worked out 5 days in a row! Miracle! Paid off though... 3 pounds down this week! Ani decided she was big enough to drink out of my water bottle... She is such a doll!

Even at church Ani distracts me! She has so many facial expressions. Let's be honest though, any picture that I post comes no where close to doing justice to how adorable she really is in person! So everyone should come visit us ASAP to meet her!

I love having her to distract me! We are really so blessed to have such a good baby! I just love her!

Thursday, March 21, 2013

Things I Love... Travel Edition

Everyone has certain things that they just need and cannot live without when they travel!!! I made sure to pay close attention to what those things were to me while I took my trip to Boise last weekend. Pretty sure after you read this, you are always gonna want to have these things with you too!!!!

1. Good Music!!!! Good music is so stinking important! when you are going to be sitting on a bus for 5+ hours, music is not a want... It's a NEED! And don't even be jealous that I was listening to One Direction... Hanging around high school kids and elementary aged kids will do this to ya. Also I am obsessed with Imagine Dragons right now. Les Miserables... Perfection, and Bruno Mars is so soothing... and I was soooooo sick on the bus.

2. iPod. If you're gonna listen to music you might as well have something to listen to it on. I love love love my iPod touch! I've had it forever and I seriously do not go anywhere without it! It's basically full of my life! Photos, music, videos, awesomeness...

3. Skull Candy Headphones! These are my newest toy. My sweet husband bought them for me because he knows how much I hate that ear buds never stay in and that I need my music to sound AMAZING! Don't you just love my "artistic" picture??? I was actually so overwhelmed with car sickness it was AWFUL!

4. Travel pillow and blanket. Whenever I sleep I have to have the weight of a blanket on me. And why on earth would you take a nap without a pillow? This one I inherited through marriage. Love it! And since it was a cheer trip, I had to bring my cheer blanket with me!!!

5. Snacks!!! These snacks were specfically chosen due to the fact that I was sick. I hadn't been drinking soda, but Sprite always calms my stomach down... and so does Lemon Heads. Weird right? Don't care. They're delicious!!!! And the wheat thins are just plain and so salty and tasty!!!! I LOVE LOVE LOVE snacks!

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

DAY 555-557... State Cheer

Wow!!! What an AMAZING weekend! I kind of don't even know where to start. Maybe I'll start with how AWESOME these girls performed over the weekend!!! They have never ever performed their routines this perfect! It gave me goosebumps every time they performed!!! I just can't get over their performances! Basically I'm OBSESSED! All of their performances are on my facebook thanks to awesome cheer moms!

We all had so much fun! We did goofy things and took so so so many pictures! I had a blast! And since my sweet little Ani Kate went to Utah with Spencer for the weekend, I got to sleep solid at night! Something I hadn't done since before I was pregnant really! But man oh man did I miss the 2 of them!
 The nerd in me begged the girls to take a picture with the Easter Bunny at the mall! These are our Bobcat paws.
 We are only a little obsessed with our new hoodies! They say "Cheer Hard Or Not At All!" And the color is AMAZING!!!!
 Ready to get this competition started! Seriously, cheerleaders bring more luggage for a 7 hour competition than most people bring for a 2 week vacation! Love it!
 I don't even need to tell you who just had to have a picture with the build a bear....

 We are only a tad bit obsessed with our red lipstick!!! Captain and Co-Captain! Love them both!
 Coaches with our co-captain
 Why on earth am I bending in half for this picture???? Weirdo
S-A-S-S-Y

So let's get to the good stuff... After all 4 of our AMAZING performances we took 1st in state for our Show routine (which if we were to go to nationals, this is the one we would take... and definitely win with) and our Pom routine. Our Stunt group took 2nd, and our super cute and AWESOME Sideline took 4th. Basically the judges hated it and we are still a little confused as to why. Anyway for Madison's first year being 5A, no one was really expecting much out of us. No one knew what to think really. But we definitely got people talking! When it came down to naming the Grand Champion we lost by .5 of a point! No other teams were close. But we stinking lost by stinking .5 of a point to last year's champion's. That's a tough loss. It helped that every other single team there told us that we were robbed and let us know how awesome we did. My girls performed so awesome! I have no regrets for them! It just means that next year we need to be doubly awesome because now we have to win!!!! Challenge accepted!





Also can we talk about how 4 hours after I left for Boise, my baby started crawling???? What the heck Ani Kate???? How is that fair? Spencer did video it and send it to me ASAP, but still. She is growing up so fast! I cannot get over it!!!

Aniston and Spencer did have a super fun time in Utah. He took her to the zoo for the first time ever (I missed everything this weekend obviously and I'm really really upset about it), but per request he took a ton of pictures and he even did her hair!!! So cute!
 Apparently she was super tired! She never cuddles with me!!!! She has favorites that naughty child!

 So happy to be with her Daddy!
She is bigger than a baby monkey!!!! What the heck!!! Stop. Growing. Up!

Oh and also on the way to Boise, while waiting in line at a Jack in the Box, I totally got hit on by a much younger and a much more ethnic man than myself. He turned to me in line and asked "What are you?" I was kind of confused and I answered "Umm.... a human." He then said "Well I saw a bunch of you get off a bus." So I said, "Oh we are going to Boise for cheer state." To this he responded with, "Well if you ever need someone to throw you up in the air I could give you my number." I immediately stuck my left hand up in the air, pointed to my insanely gorgeous wedding ring and said, "27. Married. Have a baby." Done and done.
I love these girls so much! Going to a new year with a new team is always hard, but I am serious when I say that as a whole this team is unbelievable! We have had so much fun and they all work so hard and are so talented! I'm still in shock that I have had the amazing experience of coaching such a talented group of girls!
I am so blessed!!!!