Today Blake and I have been married for 6 years, my how time has flown by! So much has changed and taken place that it seems as though it's been 10 years. We've had our trials and blessings through it all, and we are happier today then we were 6 years ago!
I love my husband for his generosity, selflessness, patience, love, humor, hard work, honesty, and also because he is such a huge help in raising our children - He helps me with EVERYTHING when he gets home in the evening and he never complains (so wonderful)! He is such a strength to me and such a great dad to our kids! I feel so lucky and blessed knowing he is my eternal companion and friend! Happy Anniversary Blake - I love you
Although the top picture is blurry (I'm not good at holding the camera still- and yes it's in the frame) it's my favorite one from our wedding, along with the one below this!
I came out of our room this morning after getting ready for church and my handsome husband was making me breakfast, fruit and pancakes (yum) and sitting beside a card were beautiful flowers and chocolate! How divine...
We had an eventful week starting off with a trip to the Splash Park, it has water coming out of EVERYTHING and of course our little girl loved it - she was soaked and had a hard time leaving!
We have about 8 dairy farms within a few miles of our home (yes, it always smells delightful) and one of them does tours, so we thought it would be fun to let Ashlyn feed some goats and a horse, pet a few chickens and rabbits and take a hay ride to look at a few thousand cows and what they eat! I promise Weston and I were there, I was just the photographer and he was sleeping the whole time anyway!!
friendly goat
The nice worker lady gave Ashlyn a carrot to feed the 26 year old horse!
So the horse kept staring at me and when I turned my back it licked my arm - Ewww
The farm had a 2 HOUR old calve and brought it over to the fence so the kids could pet it - SO CUTE
Blake's parents joined us with Trent & Robin's children*Henry was petting a chicken during this photo* (Robin had her baby girl "Paisley" the day before and the grandparents were tending the kids)... congrats Trent and Robin!
And to top off a great day we took Ashlyn to get her ears pierced and she was so BRAVE, she let them do everything to clean and mark her ears - she didn't cry until after and I think she was just a little scared, but once she had her sucker and saw her pretty earings she was ALL smiles and continues to tell Blake and I "I like earings, I like them"
Recently Ashlyn learned how to open the drawer on the coffee table (we took the handle off when she was 8 months because she'd always opened it and pinch her fingers) and today she found this wonderful SHARPIE inside! I'm sure she was SO excited with such a find, and as I was updating Weston's baby book in the kitchen she decided to "color" and put on "lippies"! She walked over to the baby gate, put her hands up and said "uh oh mama, A mess" - "I color Ashlyn"! When I realized it was a sharpie I thought, crap how am I going to get this off her face! I walked around the living room to be sure she hadn't colored on any furniture or flooring which she didn't and I'm SO grateful! It could be worse right...
She colored her hands...
and her lips...
Thankfully it didn't get inside her mouth
This was my saving grace that washed away the permanent marker, I read online that it takes it off and it REALLY does! Fewww
She leans the recliner all the way back and sits on the middle of the back, she sits and rocks while watching cartoons or checking on me in the kitchen over our pony wall!
Ashlyn decided that her pants fit perfect on her head and realized it was a pretty fun hat!
Our sweet Weston is about 10 lbs now and changing almost daily, he's really filling out and has actually grown out of a few onsies believe it or not! He has started Zantac for his mild reflux, me being off dairy didn't make a night/day difference so I can eat it again, but will try to limit it! So far the longest stretch of time he has slept at night is 6 hours and it only happened once. He sleeps better with noise so we had the bathroom fan on all night and it seemed to help some... I'm trying to figure out what he should be for Halloween?? any ideas
So yesterday was the big day, hard to believe it's been a month already - I swear it was last week, Oh wait last week was when I was up until 3AM because Weston was crying for about 5 hours straight and wouldn't settle down! It carried over to the following day for a few hours in the late morning but slowly got better and I stopped being emotional from lack of sleep and an unhappy baby while trying to take care of a toddler! We tried Mylicon, Gripe Water, a bath, I've stopped dairy for over a week now, and who knows if any of those things help we are just grateful to have had a semi-normal sleeping baby the last few days! I must add that it seems to get better everyday and he has got to be growing because in the last 3 days he's only been awake about 2 hours each day(besides feedings)! He's been smiling and following objects if we move them in front of his face, he has staring contests with me when I'm feeding him and what can I say he likes his car seat more than the swing or his bouncy! His hair seems to get a little more reddish every week and his baby acne is slowly going away - yay! We are so happy Weston is apart of our family and we love him to pieces...
Lulu Christensen Salmon McDanielsMarch 10, 1914 – September 2, 2008
(thanks to my cousin Heather for this great outline of grandma's life)
Tuesday my Great Grandma Lulu quietly passed away from this mortal existence. She was surrounded by loved ones at the time of her death. She will be greatly missed but I know that she is happily reuniting with her many, many loved ones on the other side.
My Great Grandma was born Lulu Christensen on March 10, 1914 in Ephraim, Utah. Her family later moved to Castle Gate, UT near Price and that is where she grew up. She loved to sing from a young age and when she turned 18 she moved to SLC and took voice lessons from the then tabernacle choir director, Tony Lund. After a few lessons with him she was asked to join the Tabernacle Choir and was actually assigned to be a tenor. She had a beautiful voice and was asked to sing her first solo in October 1932 General Conference. She sang, "O My Father" and after conference was over President Heber J. Grant came over to her and shook her hand and looking her directly in the eyes said, "You will sing again in General Conference in April. I have never heard a more beautiful voice sing a hymn." She did sing at the April GC and continued to sing with the Tabernacle Choir until 1935. While she was a member of the choir she also worked for KSL radio and sang live. She had a program that she sang on with her accompanist that aired every Sunday afternoon and was hosted by Richard L. Evans. She also sang at the resort Salt Aire just was of SLC. She was married to my great grandfather, John W. Salmon (Jack) in 1933.(?) President Heber J. Grant attended their wedding reception and my grandma said that he was asked to sing and that he couldn't carry a tune very well! In the 1950's the family moved up to Washington state due to my grandfathers health. My great grandfather died in 1964 due to a heart condition. My great grandmother married some years later to Robert P. McDaniels (Mac). He wasn't a member when they married but just 6 weeks after they married he was baptized. He passed away in 2002 after a long battle with Alzheimer's. My grandma was married for over 30 years to each of her sweethearts... I was lucky enough that Blake was able to meet her before we were married, however she wasn't able to meet either of my children... Grandma lived such a beautiful life and we are so blessed to have been apart of it. We love you grandma!!!
Just a few days shy of being one month old (crazy) our little Weston is going through many stages 1) he has the "baby acne" and it just looks like it hurts 2) he is so gassy and seems to be in pain, I use Mylicon drops which worked wonders for Ashlyn but they don't seem to fix the problem - so I eliminated chocolate for 4/5 days and didn't notice a difference at all and now I'm moving on to a larger scale NO DAIRY, (no what?) yeah I said dairy which is in EVERYTHING, I honestly didn't realize how much dairy products I eat - oh and no red sauce/tomatos (my other favorite)! So we'll give this a try for a week and if no change it may possibly be reflux... it's going to be a long week, however I'll do anything to help him sleep better and just be happy!
Ashlyn puts in a request to "lay ground" when either of us put her to bed, she loves to lay on the ground so here she is snuggled up with Blake in her room on the ground! so cute
At our nephews b-day party Ashlyn became so "daring" around the pool and Blake wanted to see if she would jump off the diving board without him in the pool, sure enough she jumped right in! Scary, she's not even 2 yet.
We had a lunch party with my family and watched my little brother Greg's football team (University of Utah) play there first game, they did great and won against Michigan!! Go Utes, Ashlyn was a great cheerleader!
Instead of sleeping in and staying in jammies all day Labor Day we headed out to Sycamore Creek and drove around and went down by the "wash", even though the water was brown it was nice to see water running through the desert! Surprisingly there were tons of people out target shooting, we plan to do that next weekend if the weather is just as nice (it was 79 degrees the whole time we were there)
dirty hands
Ashlyn didn't want to look at the camera so I told her we could stick our tongues out for the picture, she thought it was great!
