6.21.15

S has wanted to wear the infant sized headbands she has found that I haven't gotten to packing away yet. She was with me at the store and found toddler sized ones...it seemed like the perfect answer. I was also curious how much curl her hair would hold with a little effort. We just did a little mousse and spray gel. She was really funny. She asked me what the white stuff was and I told her mousse. She had on her shirt from Tahoe with a moose on it and said, "Mom, same same."

We were out doing errands for a little while one day, and S was fantastic. By 11 it was in the high 80s, and I decided that meant time to have snow cones. We had our first one of the season (it took us way to long) and she was definitely a fan! 

S has started insisting on being tucked from head to toe in her flannel blankets when she goes down for naps or to sleep for the night. The only flannel blankets she has are the ones that I made for her when she came home from the hospital. To say that she has outgrown them might be an understatement :) I dug through fabric that I had and only had to buy one more kind of fabric to make this for her. It's still in the process, but with any luck I may be able to finish it this week :)

S and I took time one afternoon to make this love sign for Brett for Father's Day. S loved painting her hand and feet for this. I told her it was a present for dad and I was going to go hide it for him. As soon as Brett walked in the door S said, "Dad, I pain a foot. I paint my hand. Love dad! Hide it! Love Dad!" Which was my signal to go upstairs and get it for him. He loved it...and Scarlett has continued to talk about it everyday. It's already hanging in our kitchen :)

Wednesday was a bit of a rough day for our family. Brett wanted to lighten things and just have fun together as a family. We stopped for our (mine and S's at least) second snow cone of the week on the way home. It was the perfect way to distract, have fun, and get on minds on something else.

Thursday we had to Foster Care training to do. I hired a babysitter and we left. S was so cute the next morning. The first person she asked for was Harmony (her baby sitter). It went something like, "Mom, Harmony go?!" When we got to our meeting Thursday night I had a bad feeling that they might already have marked us down for this class. I checked before we started, and they did. Blah! We figured since we had already hired a babysitter we might as well make the most of it. So, we went on a date. It was just what we needed! What a happy mistake :)

My sister ended up coming down to Utah to visit unexpectedly. Most of us met up at a Splash pad in Davis County. There were a good amount of kids there. S was not a fan of all the noise, and walked around with her ears covered for the first 30 minutes we were there. I love how good of friends she is with her cousins. We are happy we were able to spend so much time with everyone. 

S and Sa

S and M....she really misses her!

We had invited my side of the family here for a barbecue Saturday afternoon. Ivan and Dad had gone to Sundance to do the zipline there. Jessica and kids, Grandma, Ben, and Holly all hiked Stewart Falls. They took a long time on their hike and were a couple hours later getting here than they anticipated. We grabbed a picture with grandpa and all the kids that were there. It was fun to see them all surrounding him :)

We planned on making snow cones with the family here. Grandpa also brought popsicles. Then there was the great debate which didn't last long. We told their kids if their parents said yes, they could do both...which most kids did. I just love that we are able to get together now and then. S always talks about all of them after they leave too :)

I have a couple of friend who take a family picture each Sunday. I liked the idea, and thought what a great way it would be to see our family through the year. Yeah for the selfie stick :) I just need to learn where to look ;)

Tahoe Vacation

A couple days before we left on vacation with my parents I hit up the dollar store for things that would be entertaining in the car. We only pulled out 2-3 of the things on the drive there (about 11 hours of traveling) She didn't sleep at all the whole time...she also didn't fuss once. This kid is a superstar traveler! 

This set was a hit. The giggles we got out of her numerous times with these made them worth every cent!

Dinner with "Grammy and Grampy" the first night at a cute little Italian place. She currently finds it very funny to add an E sound to the end of most words :)

We stayed at the top of a mountain ridge near Lake Tahoe. Grandpa, Dad, and S all went on a little walk gathering pine cones for a fire. S loved every minute of it, but no, it really wasn't cold enough to warrant a fire. We had the windows open while the fire was going :) 

Pine cones dad, grandpa, and Scarlett gathered for a fire.

Sunday evening we took a little walk at an overlook down by the lake. It was so pretty, the weather was perfect, and S had a great time exploring :) 

Grampy and S

Peeking through the rocks 

playing with Dad

Grammy and Grampy

playing together on a log

We brought books from home to keep nap time and bedtime as "normal" as usual. She took full advantage of getting as many stories out of everyone there as possible.

Bedtime stories with Dad

The first day there we hiked to Emerald Bay with the purpose of taking a tour of a castle built on the bay. We had about 30 minutes to wait for our tour time so we decided to play in the water. It was frigid, and the rocks hurt the toes. After a bit it wasn't so bad because you couldn't feel your feet anymore :) Grandparents do things they don't love for their grandkids....like grandpa getting in the water!

this kid LOVES the water...no matter the temps :)

These ducks were very domesticated. He walked right up to us for food. S loved watching him. The only thing we had that he might eat was pretzels. It was too hard for him to break through so he took it to the water to moisten it :)

When we were close to the top we got a picture of both families. It was quite the hike down, but such a beautiful view!

grandma and grandpa

us! Yes, I packed her all the way down and up :)

One night we were there was my parents anniversary. We all went out to dinner together. S loved walking around holding Grampy's hand whenever possible. They are so fun together!

After the anniversary dinner

Grandpa insisted on finding a place with ice cream for this kiddo :) When he saw the place we went into had a banana split, that was it. He couldn't wait to see her take it on. She was completely in heaven. Yes, she got spoiled a bit this week! Yes, we pitched in and helped her finish!

banana split

There were dogs everywhere we went. This man was kind enough to let S pet his dog early in our trip that she asked to pet other ones she saw all along the way. He even gave her kisses on her cheek which she talked about for days!

We stopped by the lake spontaneously one day. The place we stopped we decided we needed to come back to another day. It was warm and and shallow for a long ways out. I love how excited she was to just be there and be in the water!

Brett had a project for work that had to be done while we were gone. It was due to a client while we were on our trip. He ended up staying at the condo and the rest of us went on a drive around the lake. One of the fun things we got to do on the way was to stop off at Squaw Peak where they held the Olympics years ago. It is a beautiful place! They are adding lots of new things there, and we stopped at a cute little toy store. So much fun!!

After Squaw Peak S miraculously fell asleep. She VERY rarely sleeps in the car. We went lots of places so I was amazed that she actually fell asleep this day. She was exhausted! I had to take a picture since it happens so rarely.

We were amazed to see a bear at our condos one night. When we saw it, it was standing next to the dumpster on its hind legs. Brett stood there later and we were able to see that the bear was about Brett's size. S still talks about it. She went on a walk with dad one night to see what they could find. I was praying it wasn't a bear :) 

The following day we went to Virginia City. It was quite the mining town back in the day. When Brett saw they had a train ride that was top of his list. We took a little tour and had a great tour guide who definitely was informative, but also fun!

There were several fun little candy shops in town. S had a grand time walking around with Dad and a basket picking out what she wanted to try out.

Our final full day there we spent at the beach. We went out about 100 yards and it only hit S's waist. She was in heaven. She'd walk for a bit, then sit and play, then walk out a bit farther. It was so much fun to watch her and play with her. I wish we had more places like that here in Utah.

On the drive home we really had some fantastic clouds a good chunk of the way. It wasn't a beautiful drive, but we had beautiful skies.

On the way home she amazingly fell asleep. She only slept about 45 minutes because we had to stop for gas. She did great though. She only had one meltdown all the way home and that was when it was approaching lunch time and getting hungry.

Week in Pictures

We left on the 6th for a little vacation. I should've blogged before we left, but was too busy with other things. Thus, this post will just be a week in pictures:

Riding in the stroller for our morning exercise.

swings at the park in pjs....i had to get out the door before it got too hot.

a bit of a forced picture at the end of our exercise :)

some days you just have to sit and play with the ball run together

trying out the Ergo in prep for our trip! She loved it and wanted me to do everything with her in it :)

5.31.15

Lots of Family Time

This was quite the busy week for our family. It was nice that we were able to start it with a day off. We had a fun Memorial Day breakfast together thanks to Brett running to the store first thing Monday morning. Scarlett loved the pancakes, fruit, and "cream". 

We wanted to just have some fun family time together. We decided to go see Home together that morning. S really liked it and kept talking about the little monsters. That evening we went over to my in-laws for a barbecue. My sister and her family joined us. We had lots of yummy food and the kids loved looking for bugs. 

Brett left out of town Tuesday. I stuck around Tuesday night for my last (for now) piano recital with my students. It was a really bitter sweet moment. In some ways I will miss it. In other ways I will be grateful to just have that time to spend with S. I love the moments we have together.

Wednesday afternoon we headed up to my parents. S took a longer nap than normal and I really wanted to get on the road so I just grabbed some food on the way. We stopped at my moms school to see her and help with a few things. Then we went with my mom to see her mom at the rehab center. Grandma has been there for over two months already and it will be at least 1 1/2 more since she just had surgery again and can't put any weight on her leg for at least 6 weeks. I need to make it up to visit her a bit more often.

^Made me think of Grandpa A. The last time I had a frosty was with him. I would go on Frosty runs for him. It was one of the only things that tasted good to him in the end.

We stopped at the store with grandma and grandpa to get things for the wedding. I kind of talked them into this two person tent. Grandpa set it up in the family room. It was about S's height, and she just kept running back and forth inside screaming and giggling. We all giggled with her :) Mom and I spent time together that evening making food for the wedding dinner.

S slept in a pac n play in my sisters old bedroom. It was pretty close to the closet. My sisters still have some things in the closet and Scarlett got a hold of a pencil box that morning while I thought she was sleeping. She colored on her hands, face, pjs, and blankets. How do you not take a picture of that?!? When I walked in the room she was laying in the pac n play with the box on her chest, not sure how to move. It was pretty cute.  

We had a wedding dinner for my brother Ben and Holly Friday evening. All of the cousins got together at my sisters home to be babysat by one of her neighbors. By the time the dinner was over it was S's bed time, but we still had to drive to Manti. We figured it would be easier that way than in the morning with the wedding starting at 9 am, and being a 2 hour drive away. We put her in jammies before we hit the road. Even though it was bedtime she didn't fall asleep the whole way there.

We got a hotel across the street from the temple where they also had a playground. We had my cousin come over and watch some of the kids while we were in the temple. We had enough time to get back, change her into her dress, and be back before they were even out of the temple. 

It was no small task keeping these kids happy together while a million pictures were taken. Somewhere someone might have a picture with all the cute girls in matching dresses. 

us

As we were leaving the temple S kept saying, "Temple, see it. Temple, see it!" She remembered going to the temple the previous week. The best solution I could come up with was to walk into the lobby of the temple with her...and it worked. I love how she loves the temple. Maybe if we're lucky we'll get to have her at the temple with a sibling soon.

I have such fond memories of attending Snow College. One of our favorite places was The Malt Shoppe. It was too pricey for me to go to much at all, but if my parents came to town they'd usually treat us (my roommate and me). Brett made sure we stopped before leaving town. I got a grasshopper shake for old times sake.

That evening we had their reception/luau. We had pictures with the whole family before it started. By the time all the pictures were taken the little ones were really loosing it. I don't know if we even got a picture with all of them. I love and S and M just walked around holding hands. They really like each other. As soon as S saw M she walked up to her holding out her hand and saying, "hand, hand!" 

We all had a great time together. It was nice to get to see everyone...especially since we don't all live as close together any more.