Celebrating Good Times

Today is this beautiful lady's 80th birthday!
I love this picture of my Grandma Betty. (Great work, Zeb!) She's always had a lovely garden, and loves spending time in it. I have so many fond memories enjoying that garden with her. I also am filled with memories of tea parties, book clubs, sleepovers in the pink room, board games, story telling, enjoying walks, and playing lawn games in the front yard, just to name a few things. Growing up, my family went to visit the grandma's every Sunday evening. I always looked forward to it, and still do. I feel really blessed to have grown up so close to such wonderful grandparents, whom I claim as dear friends. Talking to my grandma on the phone earlier today, she told me she started her birthday with a 2 mile walk, and that she thought that was pretty good for an old lady. :) She's taught me so many things in life, like washing dishes, love for flowers and nature, family history, and taking good care of your body, so you can be healthy and happy at 80!
Gram B, thanks for spreading so much love to me as your (favorite!) granddaughter, and continuing that love and great example for Evan. We love you and miss you, and can't wait to see you soon! Happy Birthday!!!!!

Evan is lucky to share his half-birthday with Gram B. I CANNOT believe that 6 months ago today, our teensy little elf had just graced us with his presence in this world.
I feel so many emotions as I look at pictures from the day he was born. It is hard to believe he was ever that small (not that 9lbs is very small when you're born, but compared to now...)! I had no idea what I was in for as I cradled that new little boy as close to my heart as I could. I thought I had felt all the love I could feel at that moment in time. Every day, nay, every few hours, I am overwhelmed with gushing love all over again! I don't really know what I expected 6 months ago, but I never imagined we would already be doing this: Or finding out how much we love swimming!I should have guessed that he would be such a good eater, especially if there is some sort of sporting event to watch while eating. Just. like. daddy.He also doesn't really like it when I interrupt said sporting events. Just. like. daddy. "Mom....I'm trying to watch the game.

I didn't know I would embrace motherhood so much, and have such a very special bond with my boy.

Or that he would take after his mommy and love to cuddle and snuggle.

I am certainly glad that he puts up with my photo shoots! And I absolutely heart the time we spend together. I was reminded today that not every mom gets to enjoy every little moment with their little ones, watching them learn and grow and embrace the world. I'm feeling incredibly fortunate to have more than enjoyed the last 6 months and can't believe how time has flied. I look forward to every new day!! Especially, when a good amount of our day is spent like this:

From a recent post, you learned my favorite part of the day is getting Evan from his naps. Evan's favorite part of the day, close to when daddy comes home, is jumping in his jumper. Excited is not even a vibrant enough word to describe him jumping! Evan gets a little distracted when the camera is out, so I couldn't get him all of his glory, but it's a pretty good taste. :)

"Let's eat cereal, cereal!"

"Come on, eat your cereal!!" Yes, this is all sung to the tune by Ms Newton John herself, "Physical". The boy gets a kick out of it. Who wouldn't? We started Evan on rice cereal a little while ago. He was so excited for the first bite!

"Uh, is this how it's supposed to taste?
'Cause this is definitely NOT good.
Seriously, I might have to just spit this all out.
Dad, has she made you try this stuff?!
Ooh, wait... when Dad feeds it to me, it magically tastes so much better!!
I'm watchin' you, lady...
But for today, it was way fun to watch you and daddy make ridiculous faces and noises at me! You guys are totally nuts and it was awesome!"
A few weeks later, we seem to be on a little bit better terms with cereal than this first encounter. At least Evan is. I hate it, honestly. It's time consuming, messy, and it seems like a waste of money. I really hate messes (Uh, wake up, right Sara? You have a son, now). But seeing how this is just the beginning of our feeding adventures with the baby (who doesn't even seem like a baby anymore, now that he's eating food! -tear), I decided I had to buck up and just go with it. So instead of constantly trying to keep Evan and myself spotless throughout each procedure, I decided when he starts to get messy and spitting and not taking the spoon, I just draw on his face with the cereal. It's already everywhere, anyways! He seems to think it's pretty silly, but it also makes him want the spoon. I guess since I'm actually not putting it in his mouth, that makes him want it. Perfect sense! Here's our latest face, as of yesterday. (Don't mind all of my laundry on the couch!) May I add, I managed to get out with no cereal on my clothes or skin, just in my hair. That's a major improvement!

I was trying to go for a mustache and goatee. I think it turned out pretty darn good! I wonder what today's drawing will be. Any suggestions?Who wants a hug?! (And maybe, if you're lucky, a big baby smooch, too!!!)

I love my job

The pay is WAY better than I could have ever imagined. It's the first job I've ever had where I really don't mind waking up for it in the morning, or putting in extra hours late into the night. I plan on never retiring. I have very little vacation time and virtually no sick leave, but the perks completely make up for it. My favorite part of the day is not my lunch break or getting mail or even quitting time (because lets face it, there really isn't such a thing as quitting time). My favorite part of the day actually comes approximately four times a day: getting Evan from his crib.

To prove this was not a fluke, here's some more evidence of how happy he is when he wakes up:

This is one of the best reasons why I have the greatest job ever.

Birthday, birthday, who had a birthday?

I know, I know! Nate did!! My favorite thing about birthdays is decorating and wrapping presents. I'm sure Nate appreciates it just as much as I do. :)

This is a new addition to my decor, and I was SO excited to use it! I'll be sure to lay it out on my birthday, so Nate knows to put it up. It makes me very happy.

I'm pretty sure I get way more excited about Nate's presents than he does. Though he was pretty stoked about this NEW kind of Root Beer he hasn't tried yet.

He also got Almond Rocha (I don't know why he loves this stuff so much), and a car jack so he can work on the cars (?), and...

Classic Stockton. These were all things he has asked for in the past. Nate said his Jazz collection is now complete. I don't know if he is actually ever going to wear this one, or keep it in it's packaging and frame it. He was quite surprised.

It wouldn't be a Nate birthday without his banana cream pie. I was pretty excited when I found these candles, because 27 candles would have been WAY too many. ;)

I also surprised him with a movie date and I think that was his favorite gift. We really love going to the movies, but haven't gone once since we moved to Ridgecrest. And since the baby was born, we haven't been on a date at all. So I think it meant a lot to him. I was happy to make him happy, even though I spent the last 45 minutes of Iron Man 2 wishing the fight scenes would just get on with it, because I was worried about my baby. Nate's birthday weekend ended appropriately with an AWESOME Brazil Night. We have done this once before and we love it. There are several guys in our ward who served in Brazil. So we get together and feast on delicious homemade Brazilian food and let the boys reminisce about their missions. He couldn't have asked for a better birthday, in my opinion. I think it all made it a little easier to transition into old man-ness. :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LOVE! Sure am glad you were born!

Latest Discoveries

Being 5 months old is pretty exciting in our neck of the woods. A lot of things have come into our lives. First and foremost, FEET. Whatever did we do before we found these guys as our friends? I often find Evan asleep in some sort of pose like this:

If you know my husband well, you know that he is quite the Root Beer connoiseur. (You can see part of his bottle collection below). It was pretty exciting when we ventured to the local brewery for the first time and found this beauty. My husband is so easily pleased.Evan and daddy both (seem to) like being handsome. They are so good at it. They usually end up matching ties for church, but daddy's always comes off before we get out of the car. Long, long, long hairs have sprouted on my baby's perfect little head. You can barely see my fingertip at the top of this picture, holding onto one of those buggers.

He has about 5 of them all around his head.

But as much as Nate persists, I cannot bring myself to cut them. He's my baby!

This awesomeness came from Utah. It is probably the single greatest ingredient to ever exist. It can go on anything!!! Belive me, I have tried. Can't seem to find it in my California stores, so my dear sister ships me the goods.

And then came these! They turned out to create the most wonderful rice krispie treats I've ever had. Thank you, Albertson's, for having cereal on sale for $1.49. Otherwise, I would have never experiemented with these. Sure glad I did!

Laying on our sides is a new found favorite pastime. Evan can roll over, but he prefers to just hang out halfway.

Oleanders bloom! Who knew?! These bad boys line our ENTIRE backyard, so the flowers have brought quite a lovely dash of color to our desert. And I think they smell delightful. I guess having poisonous plants around isn't that bad afterall.
One day, as Evan and I were feeding the fish, we nearly stumbled upon this (in our bare feet)
I looked directly above me to find:

Spring has officially sprung, I guess! Or flown the coop, for that matter ;) I really was sorry for the little egg.

One more feet picture just to make you smile. I cannot describe to you how much this boy loves his feet. Often when I pick him up and he is holding his feet, he won't let go, even while I'm carrying him around.
Besides trying not to melt, these are some of our discoveries lately!