New adventures and an 11 month old

We have officially been moved in and settled for a full week now! J did so good on the drive up! He shocked us with how good he was. He didn't fuss a bit the first day. We stopped and stayed in St. George that night. The next day wasn't too bad either. He had a little melt down just outside Beaver, so we stopped, fed him, and we was good the rest of the way!

We are really loving it here in Salt Lake. I think I have had only 2 minor crying spells. Every now and then, in the most random places, I will find myself holding back tears. Tejay was in his best friend's wedding this past weekend and we had to be there early. I found myself getting emotional as I sat around the hustle and bustle because I didn't know a single person, beside the bride and groom. I realized the gravity of our move. No friends and no family here. Yikes!

We went to our ward for the first time on Sunday. It was a total shock to me! I was expecting that our ward would be just as big as the ward we came from... it being Utah and all. It was probably 1/3 of the size! They had maybe 10 primary kids... we had 140. There were about 4 young women and a lot of elderly! From what we have gathered, our ward should be bigger but there are a lot of families who are inactive. Really, not what I expected.

J is 11 months old! (He will be 1 in 18 days, but who is counting.) He is wearing a size 4 diaper, and wears 18 month clothes. He is completely obsessed with Elmo! He can be mid tantrum  and if he hears the Elmo's World  song, he will stop and stare, and that will be the end of his fit. J has been walking for about 2 weeks now! It is very rare that he will crawl now. He is a very busy boy! He says a lot of words now. Apple, Doodle (a dog), Mama, Dada, Bam-pa (grandma), Ma-maw (grandma),bye, and is very good at saying no. He also blows kisses. He is the sweetest boy and I am so happy I get to stay home with him!

We had an early birthday party for him before we left. It was a lot of fun. He was super spoiled. He wasn't sure what to think about the cake, and it didn't go over like we thought it would. But we figured we would try again on his real birthday.

Here are some pictures from the past few weeks and J's early party.

Golfing in the beautiful Utah Grass

 J climbs EVERYTHING!

First bonk on the stairs.

All dressed for a wedding.

Lots of new things....

So if you don't have a lot of time, this is not the post to be reading. I didn't realize how long it had been since I had last posted. Our life has seriously been super crazy lately!

So I left off with J being 6 months. Well, now he will be 10 months old on Monday! What!? At his 9 month appointment he weighed almost 23 pounds, was 30 inches tall/long, and a 46in head circumference. He is seriously so stinkin big! He wears a size 3 diaper and he is comfortably wearing 18 month clothes. There are even some 24 months things that he can wear.

J is such a little character! It has been so fun to watch him develop into this little person. He says mama, dada, bam-pa (grandpa), and his most favorite is no. When he starts to do something he isn’t supposed to or get into something he isn’t allowed to be, we often hear him saying “no no no”. J started crawling right on his 8 month “birthday”. He is such a funny crawler. He crawls normal on carpeted areas, but as soon as he hits the tile he bear crawls, which is fitting since we call him Bear. Right around 9 months he started pulling himself up on things. He also started walking with his little push walker. He is getting more adventurous (and more bruised up) as he has started trying to stand without assistance. He will even walk while only holding on to one of my hands. He is all boy and is a very busy boy. We have to trap him in our living room, but he has learned how to escape. I know that if it is quiet, he is probably doing something he shouldn’t be. We love him so much and are so lucky to have him!

We put our house up for sale the Thursday afternoon before Memorial Day. Within an hour, we had someone calling to come see it. By late Friday night, we had an offer! We accepted right away and things seemed to go pretty well. However, the buyer backed out not even a week later, but luckily, we had a back up offer waiting. We accepted it and since then all has gone pretty smoothly. I was so happy that it went so quickly. The day the first buyer backed out we were on our way up to Salt Lake to look for places to live. As we walked around downtown the night we got there, I felt home. I fell in love with our new city very quickly. We walked everywhere! We only to our Jeep out one afternoon to go drive to places to look at. I was kind of disappointed with some of the property management companies up there though. We scheduled appointments to see some places and 2 different companies stood us up. The last day we were there, I was starting to give up hope that we would find something we liked, but then we got in to a town home and I loved it! I felt like that would be our home. It is in a perfect location for us! It is 5-10 minutes for the U and maybe 5 minutes from downtown. We have a golf course right across the street and a huge park within walking distance. I am really excited.

It has taken me a little while to get excited though. I hate moving. I like structure and routine and this has not been that way at all! I have really had a huge trial of faith during all of this. With the town home, the leasing manager said that once we put in the deposit/application, they could hold it up to 5 weeks from the time the home was ready. We jumped on it right away. We did everything right. A week later he emailed me and said that our file was concerning and we were under review from their board. I basically lost it. I was making myself so worried that I wasn’t eating a whole lot and one night got so worked up that I literally got sick. Tejay finally called the guy to clarify and see what was so concerning. Turns out it wasn’t as bad as it sounded. All they wanted was for us to submit proof that our home had sold, once we have that information. So the home is ours pending the sale of our home. So I am breathing easier now.

My last day of work is tomorrow! I am so excited! It is also kind of weird. It is almost like starting a whole new career. What am I going to do with J all day, everyday? I know I have a lot to learn, but am so looking forward to this new change.

I think this gets us all caught up and current with what is going on. Here are a few pictures from our past few months.

Swimming with my bear

He has learned to get into everything!

Don't mind our mess. This is how we contain him. We call

it the "bear cage".

Poor guy had to get his blood drawn at his 9 month apt.

Found the toilet paper

He is so happy when he first wakes up.... at 5 AM

Getting into the dog dishes.

Crashed out in his crib.

Tej and I in SLC

Mother's Day

In the bath.

6 months

I am 2 weeks behind on this post. Mostly because I'm still trying to pick my jaw off  of the ground. J is 6 months old! (Now technically 6 1/2 months). I still get a little emotional when I think about it. This is the one and only time that I get to enjoy having just one baby. He is the complete center of my world. To say that I feel guilty dropping him off with my mom everyday is an understatement. My heart breaks and I sometimes wonder if I am doing the right thing. I usually only get to spend 2 hours with him a day during the week and the nights that I have Presidency meetings mean that I see him less. I know that this is what is best for my family right now and it will only be a few more months that I will do this, but this is why it is so hard thinking about him being 6 months old. With that being said, here are the amazing moments I do see with my sweet angel baby.

J is still in a size 2 diaper, but we are slowly creeping up to the 3's. His 6 month clothes are already packed away and he is currently wearing 9-12mo. At his 6 month check up, he weighed 19 lbs, 12oz and was 28 and 1/4 inches long. I knew he had to be approaching the 20lb mark because lifting his carrier with him in it is getting super heavy! Kelly Ripa arms here I come! :) He has two teeth, but is too stubborn to let me take a picture. I think he is working on another tooth, so we will see. He his making all kinds of new squeals and noises. He loves to hear himself. It is so fun. His hair is finally starting to come in. He still looks bald, but I can tell it is starting to grow. He loves his baby food! We had to take him off of sweet potatoes and bananas (his favorites) because it wasn't agreeing with his system. He does love prunes and he is really liking some of the different fruits in the "2nd foods" stage. We don't do much rice cereal or oatmeal, again because it blocks him up.

J is really good at sitting up by himself with out someone there all the time. I don't leave him too long, but he is usually ok if I walk away for a second. If by chance he does fall, he has gotten good at this "tuck and roll" move. He also now rolls over without assistance/bribes and does it frequently! Yay!

He is such a good baby! His is very observant and loves to try what he sees. For example, he likes to share our cups of water. If you drink out of a cup and don't let him do it, he starts to squirm and shake. He loves his feet and is so fascinated by them.

Here are some pictures from this last month.

Shopping

First baseball game!

Shredding the paper at the Dr. office. He is obsessed with textures lately!

Baseball

Sitting in the front of the shopping cart for the first time! He sat this was the entire time. He didn't want to even face forward long enough for me to take a picture.

In other news....
I can't say that this is definitive yet, but we are leaning towards moving to SALT LAKE!! Tejay applied and was accepted to University of Utah. We have been really impressed with them. First of all, the associate dean of admissions called him directly and told him he had been accepted. Then, he got a 1inch binder filled with everything he would need to go there. It had financial aid info, housing info, you name it, it was in there. Also in that binder was the acceptance letter from the same dean who called him. On the bottom of the page was a hand written note from him to Tejay letting him know that he was so glad to have talked to him and "here is my cell phone number if you have any questions." This dean gave Tejay his cell phone number! They just have been super classy and we like the feeling we get when we think about it. To top it all off, I was researching rental homes in Salt Lake and kept seeing one of my friends names on the contact information. Turns out, this friend manages rental properties in Salt Lake. Ironic right? So if we were to make a decision right this second, we both would say that we are going to U of U. We both have a calm feeling about it. We will have a final decision by next month, but that is where it stands right now. Anything could change because we are still waiting to hear back from ASU and BYU, but we know that we will be led to what is best for his education and for our family. We are so grateful for our families who have been so supportive!

My amazing husband and J is 5 months!

So I have to start out by bragging about my amazing husband! We have been in the waiting period for hearing back from law schools. Just a few weeks after turning in applications, Lewis and Clark (Portland, OR) and Baylor (Waco, TX) notified saying that he was accepted! Baylor even offered some scholarship money. University of Alabama had him set up a student email account. We have yet to hear if this is a good or bad thing. He was also accepted to Phoenix School of Law (but this one really isn’t one we are considering). Yesterday, the Associate Dean of Admissions called Tejay directly and told him that he was accepted in to University of Utah! Then, we walked down to the mail box and the University of San Diego sent him an acceptance packet and also offered him a scholarship! I am so proud of him! He has worked so hard and it is so awesome to see this hard work beginning to pay off. I don’t know where we will end up, but I know that Tejay and I are ready to do something new. We both are thinking it would be nice to escape Arizona for a few years. Even though we have 3 years left I am beginning to see a light at the end of the tunnel. It might just be a tiny crack, but there is some light shining through.

I don’t do this often, but I have to share happy news about myself. So there is this cover to a magazine that has Kourtney Kardashian on it and the tag line says “How I got thin fast!”

 

Every time I saw it, I would just get bitter and think that if I had time to work out 3 hours a day and had someone cook all of my meals, I could lose my pregnancy weight fast too. Well I finally broke down and decided to read it. She lost 44 pounds in 6 months. When I read that it kind of made me mad again. Well it just so happened that I had a weigh in that day for a competition we are doing with family. I had lost 5 pounds since January 1st. As I calculated that in my head, I realized that I have lost 44 pounds since having J…. that is also only 5 months! It totally made my day and still makes me happy. I have about 10 more to go before I am happy, but I am noticing that things are fitting better again. I am finally able to fit in my small scrub pants again! To set the record straight, is hasn't just come off. I have worked so hard and feel so proud of myself. I get up at 3:45 every morning to go to the gym and I count my calories every day. I even am on a vegetarian diet (which I really enjoy). I also haven't had a soda since January 1st!. It has taken so much work, but is so worth it. I feel so good about myself!

Now on to my sweet baby J. He is 5 months old! Time is just flying with him and so often I find myself hoping for a pause button. He is such a good baby!

He now has a tooth! In dental terms, I call it tooth O, but in normal terms it is one of his bottom front teeth. I am pretty sure he is working P also because he is chewing on everything again. He has done really well with it! He hasn’t been fussy or had a fever. We have been really lucky. He is wearing 9 month clothes now! Some 6 month things he can fit in to, but we are pretty much in the process of clearing out all of the small things. J can roll over, but he won’t do it often. If you put him on his belly he will tolerate it for a bit and roll a few times, but then he will throw a tantrum. It is actually pretty funny. He also sits up pretty well on his own now! He started doing it around 4 ½ months. Now I just stay close to catch when he loses balance, but even then, it isn’t that often.

He loves his feet and looking in the mirror. His favorite foods are sweet potatoes and bananas, and he LOVES his Rylee (our dog)! He searches for her, will stop eating as soon as he sees her, and he loves to “pet” her. He will latch on to her neck and she just sits there, happy as can be. She is so good with him.

He likes to “read” books. He will pat the pages and help me turn them. He is also really into textures right now. One of his favorite toys is one of those crinkly ones.

For the most part, he sleeps through the night. He might have 1 or 2 nights where he wakes up, and we are trying to let him just work it out on his own. He is such a good sleeper! We are having so much fun watching him grow and develop.

Teething

Sitting up like a pro!

Lovin his feet.