The One Where I Don't Want To Forget

Paige is at another fun age.  She has been doing some cute things that I don't want to forget about. Like...

• Every time I get her out of her crib (for a nap or in the am), she wants to do Ring Around The Rosies while she is still in the crib, and she always points at her Olivia picture that Rick put up for her (like she's showing it to me for the first time).  Sometimes she even runs laps, or she's running away from me in her crib.  Either way it's cute.

• She is my little shadow & helper.  She is learning to put toys away & help in other ways.
• Paige LOVES her shoes.  It's a good thing, too, because she has SO many of them.  Sometimes she will bring us a shoe for her to wear just because.  Other times, she will bring us 2 shoes that don't match and are the same foot, but she insists on wearing both at the same time.  

• Paige loves to watch tv.  She especially loves to watch the tv standing up.  Her favorite shows are Olivia & Mickey Mouse Club House.

• She still loves swinging, but she loves sliding even more!  She gets the biggest smile on her face every time she goes down a slide (except the giant slide at the fair... she didn't not like it, but she didn't smile like she usually does).

• When I lay her down to have a nap, or go to bed for the night, I sing to her.  She looks up at me with the absolute cutest smile you've ever seen, then gives me a kiss, then lays her head on my shoulder, then repeats several times.  It's hard to lay her down when she's being so cute.
• Every morning, and at least 3 times throughout the day, she takes me into her room so she can play her keyboard.  She will leave the pre-programmed music on for hours at a time if I will let her.  She loves it so much.

The One With My To Do List

This was half of my to do list for the week...

Rick saw it and said I've been watching too much Blues Clues...

The One With NINE Sets of Grandparents!

I should have included this my previous post, but I didn't :)  

I've been thinking, since I made the Grandparent's Day Cards, about how lucky Paige is to have so many grandparents.  They all adore her and she loves them all too.

I wish I had pictures of all 9 sets of grandparents (yes, that's right, she has NINE sets of great and grandparents) with Paige, but I don't.  I think that will be my next goal, to get a picture of Paige with each of her grandparents.  I just decided that :)


I doubt any of them will read this, but I really want Paige to know how blessed she is when she gets old enough to understand.


Grandma & Grandpa T.  (my parents)
When Paige was just born, there were 2 people who I just loved watching with her, Rick & my dad.  There was just something so special for me about it and you could really see their love and maybe even reverence for her.  It almost makes me tear up just thinking about it again.  My dad and Paige always click their tongues at each other (it's their 'thing') and almost every time she hears someone say 'grandpa' (even if he's not around), she clicks her tongue.  It's so cute.
My mom is amazing with all of her grand kids.  Paige is number 14 of now 16 grand kids for my parents.  My mom was still so thrilled and excited all through my pregnancy, even though she had 13 other grand kids.    It made me so happy.  I could go on and on about them since they are my parents, they are just amazing!

My dad, mom & Paige at Rick's mom's wedding
Summer 2010

My mom & Paige swinging in her back yard.
They both LOVE to swing!
Summer 2011

Great Grandma S. (my mom's mom)
Paige & I have been able to visit her pretty consistently.  My mom goes in more than weekly to help around the house, so Paige and I go about once a month to visit Great Grandma S.  I am so grateful for that time we get to share with her.  She is very low on energy, but is always so happy to see Paige.  She LOVES babies! Lately we get out Grandma's toys, and Paige will play with Great Grandma.  Great Grandma always comments on how busy and active Paige is.  I like to see the two of them together.

Clapping & playing
09.2011

Great Grandma T. (my dad's mom)
We haven't visited her quite as much, but every time we do see her, she is so happy to see us.  If I ever see her without Paige, she always asks about her.  She is very thoughtful and sweet.
(pictures to come soon)

Grandma &Grandpa B. (rick's dad & step-mom)
We are lucky enough to live pretty close to them, so we probably get to see Grandma & Grandpa B the most out of all of her grandparents.  Paige loves going to their house.  Every time we go over there, we are greeted with such enthusiasm, they are always thrilled to see us.  Grandpa B loves to make Paige smile, and does a good job of it.  We recently went to Bear Lake with their family and Paige realized how much she loves Grandma Julie there.  Ever since, she always wants Grandma Julie to hold her & play with her.

Grandma Julie, Paige & Grandpa B @ Bear Lake counting Paige's toes
Summer 2011

Paige and Grandma Julie adore each other.
Bear Lake, Summer 2011

Great Grandma & Grandpa B. (rick's dad's parents)
These two are some of the kindest, sweetest people you will ever meet.  They always have something nice to say, and they love to watch Paige run around.  It seems like every time Great Grandma B sees Paige, she comments on how cute or sweet or special she is.  I think she's right.  :)

Great Grandma B probably holding Paige for the first time
2010

Great Grandma & Grandpa S. (julie's parents)

We don't see these grandparents very much, but they are always so nice and willing to help us.  Great Grandpa S is a retired doctor, so he has given us his opinion a few times, and we are so grateful for it.  They always seem to be so happy.

(pictures to come soon)

Grandma & Grandpa F. (rick's mom & step dad)

Grandma always spoils Paige.  Besides giving Paige the treats that grandmas are supposed to give, she has bought Paige several super cute outfits (in fact, we just got another one from her tonight).  Every time she wears them, Paige always gets lots of compliments too.  Grandma & Grandpa F got married last summer, and it has been so fun to get to know Grandpa.  He loves Paige and is so caring of her.  They are both always thrilled when we ask them to watch Paige, and they even offered to take her for the weekend when Rick had his surgery.  Although it was our first time away from Paige, we were so grateful for their help.  Jaleen also planned for Santa to come to her house so we could get pictures of Paige with Santa.  It was so fun, and nice of her to set it all up.

Grandma Jaleen & Paige on her wedding day
Summer 2010

Grandma Jaleen & Paige on her wedding day
Summer 2010

Grandpa Rob with Paige when Santa came to Jaleen's house
December 2010

Great Grandma & Grandpa L. (rick's mom's parents)
They live out of state, so we don't get to see them as much as we would like either.  Great Grandpa L is a temple sealer (or was, but still can... I forget).  Great Grandma L is great at sewing and she made Paige a beautiful quilt when she was born.  They are so sweet to watch together, and with Paige.  Great Grandma L loves to interact with Paige.
(pictures to come soon)

Great Grandma Ruth (rob's mom)
I have enjoyed getting to know Grandma Ruth the past year, since Rob & Jaleen got married.  Her husband recently passed away, and we will miss him so much.  He was a very happy man that was always willing to share his vegetables from his garden.  When I sent out the Grandparents Day cards last week, hers came back in the mail.  Instead of risking it come back again, Paige and I decided to drop it off to her and to have a short visit with her, since she lives so close.  It was so nice to get to know her better, I think that card came back in the mail for a reason. She is so sweet and loves Paige already.  When we were visiting, she let Paige wander around her house, and was okay with it!  Paige is at a discovering age, so I was more nervous than Great Grandma Ruth was.  I noticed when we were visiting with her that she had her toe nails painted.  I don't know anyone her age who has their toe nails painted, and I loved that about her.  She is so sweet and I am excited to get to know her better.
(pictures to come soon)

Oh my goodness.  Before I started writing this, I knew Paige was so blessed, but now that I have put more thought into it and written it all down, I feel overwhelmed at how lucky all of us are to have these amazing people in our lives.

**Please excuse the pictures.  Lots of them are cell phone pictures because I wasn't prepared with a camera.  Others (the really good ones) were taken by my friend Carlye)

The One Where It's Grandparents Day!

Pagie, Rick and I have all been blessed with some great grandparents.  Sunday is Grandparents Day, so I decided to send out a few cards to show them we cared about them.  I got the idea here, and grabbed some of our scrapbook paper and ended up making 9... yes NINE cards (Paige has 3 sets of grandparents and 5 sets of great-grandparents... some of them steps, but that's still family!).  I used a few different patterns, but they all basically were the same thing.  

I let Paige color on her hand print since she loves to color, and I thought it would make it more from her that way.  Also, Rick told me I should write 'pull my finger' so they knew to move the hand.  I did on most of them, but I just wrote 'pull down' for the more conservative grandparents.  :)

I'm happy with how they turned out and I hope that it gave them all big smiles.

Thanks A MILLION to all of the grandparents we have.  They have all been such great supports in our lives.  We love them!


I will be linking up here and here and here and here and here. :)

The One Where Our Summer Is Coming To An End

 I'm always sad when school starts again (even if I'm not in it at the time), because it means Summer is over.  Summer is my favorite season ever.  This Summer started out pretty rough because in May, we had my surgery, then Rick's, then in June, we had Paige's.  We were all just trying to get back to normal, but once we got going, there was no stopping us.  :)

These are some of the fun memories we made this summer.

It's a long one... maybe I should have kept up with my blogging this Summer???

June:

• My brother (from AZ... we'll call him Brother #2) was in town, so for my birthday, I had a pool party with some of the coolest kids ever.  That's right, I invited all of my nieces & nephews (and of course their cool parents) to my house to go swimming for my birthday.  It was great, one of my favorite birthdays.  Rick & I missed my family vacation right after this because of our healing, but having them over for my birthday made up for it.
• My brother (another one... brother #3) and his sweet wife were sealed in the Salt Lake Temple.  It was such a neat experience & I am so thrilled for them.  

Brother #3, baby belly & wife.  Special day!

• I was able to meet with some friends who I hadn't seen in far too long.  It was so nice to have some time to catch up with some of my great friends!
• Because brother #2 was in town, I was able to spend a lot of time with my whole family the last week or so in June.  I am so grateful for that time.

July:

• Rick was able to go back to work & eventually stopped using his crutches.  This was a huge step for us.  
• Rick & I were able to go to Bear Lake with his family, it was the first time I went up with all of them (Rick and I had been up there alone a few times), and we really enjoyed ourselves.  We were able to go shooting, we attempted to tube with Paige, and we just enjoyed being with everyone.  We did discover at Bear Lake that Paige loves something more than swinging... going down the slide! 

The shooting gang (minus 1... she was taking the pic) 

I was shooting the pigeons & Ricky was ready to go

I look pretty tough, huh?

Paige didn't like the tube, or the life vest, or either...

Does this face prove it?

Once we got to Bear Lake, Paige decided she absolutely adores grandma Julie.  

She wanted to be with her the whole time.

She's counting her toes in this picture.  She loves to do that.

• We were able to have a much needed relaxing month.  I was able to work a little less, spend more time with Paige & clean the house (it needed it!).

August:

• I got called to teach Relief Society (a calling I used to dread), and taught my first lesson this month.  I had taught Relief Society one time before (not as a calling), but I was pleasantly surprised with how it ended up.  I know I received a lot of help, and I had some neat experiences.
• One of my cute cousins got married.  It was such a beautiful wedding & reception and she looked amazing!  She had a photo booth, so Ricky & I had a little fun.  Now I keep thinking of all of these cool poses we should have done.  Oh well... next time...

• We were able to spend lots of time with family again.  I especially loved being able to spend time with my mom (she is a teacher, so she had the Summer off) at least once a week.  

My mom & Paige both LOVE to swing.

September:

• I was able to take Paige (with one of my cute friends & her daughters) to a toddler music class.  Paige loved it.  We ran, danced & made music.  Paige & I also went to the library's toddler time, which has some similarities (except it's free), and we will be going to that weekly if possible! 
• Football season started.  Which means I am a football wife (ahem) widow,  but this year Rick has made it a lot of fun (partly thanks to the grill we got him for Father's Day), so I have been enjoying it a lot.  He makes dinner on the grill & he has even been stocking up (using coupons even... I wore off on him!) on a bunch of snacks.  I can't complain if he makes dinner AND cleans the house every Saturday!
• Rick & I went to Flaming Gorge/Manilla for my family's trip to my brother's (Brother #1) cabin.  It was a lot of fun.  Labor Day is their BIG holiday.  They had a parade that morning & a boat parade that night with fireworks.  I guess they changed the boat route this year, so we barely saw the boats from where we were, but it was still a lot of fun. 

Waiting for the parade to start

Playing at the beach.  
She ate her first clump of dirt shortly after I took this pic.

Waiting for the boat parade to start... it was cold & Paige fell asleep in my arms... awhhh!

• While we were at Brother #1's cabin, I found out that Paige had one molar cut through!  I was surprised since she takes months to cut her teeth (for the first 4 teeth, she took 4 months to teeth, but in the past month, she has cut 5 teeth) & since molars are usually the last teeth to cut.  She still has more teeth to cut besides molars.
• We tried to take Paige swimming at our pool (at our apartments) several times throughout the summer.  Last year she loved swimming, but this year, she seems afraid.  As soon as she gets her toes wet, she screams and holds onto me so tightly.  Thanks to our trip to Flaming Gorge, on Labor Day, we tried one last time, and she let me put her in up to her neck!  She had fun this time.

One of the first times we took her to the pool this summer.  We didn't get far.

 Another time we tried to convince her to get in the pool  

This time it was a kiddie pool at Bear Lake.  

She did a little better here, but she didn't want to get out of my lap.

• Rick started playing flag football again.  His knee still has a long way to go, but he plays QB and doesn't run on it.  Please pray that no one from the other team ruffs him up... :)
• We went to the fair the other night.  It was a lot of fun.  Rick took Paige down the big slide (since she loves slides so much), but her favorite part was petting the sheep and goats.  

 She was fearless and wanted to pet everything.

Cute... :) 

 We had to get a normal family picture. (see below...)

This was maybe my favorite part of the fair... who does these things, really?  

I had a good laugh. 

Cute!

Did I miss anything?  I am sure I did, but this will have to do!  It sure was a fun Summer.