The Life and Times of a Red Head

Clearing my mind

2012-02-15T08:29:00.000-07:00

Things I need to get off my chest:

- I do not understand the lack of respect that other people have for other people's property. Exhibit A:

This is our new car. I love it. Some hooligan decided to leave us a present not one week after we purchased the car. Someone keyed our car. Now, we have to pay the $100 deductible to get it fixed, and go without a car for 3 days. I know that it is such a wonderful thing to have car insurance pay for the majority of the cost to get it fixed, and I am so happy that this is so. I am just frustrated that because someone decided to be "cool" we, literally, have to pay for it.

- The weather has been amazingly odd. It has only snowed 2 or 3 days since we have been here, totally not normal for Idaho. It feels like spring and I love it.

- Jillian Michaels wants my legs to give out on me. So does the treadmill. They are teaming up to get me.

- Diapers are gross.

- Papa Murphy's makes me happy.

- In order for people to have an actual argument they really should use all the facts, not just ignore certain parts of things because it makes them feel better. Denial is a sad, sad thing.

I think that is all for now.

Another one.... Really?

2012-02-02T12:46:00.003-07:00

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2017383343_gerson01.html?prmid=obinsite

This is very very interesting to me. This article is an opinion article, which honestly, I don't often read. However, it caught my eye.

I personally believe that whatever form of birth control you do or do not use is up to you and yours.... but to force religious institutions (In this case Catholic Institutions) to have to pay for their own health insurance because they don't believe in your opinion is wrong.

Interestingly enough there was a Supreme Court ruling recently involving employment discrimination that stated that religious institutions could make their own hiring and firing decisions without the government's interference. A New York Times article stated "'The interest of society in the enforcement of employment discrimination statutes is undoubtedly important,' Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote in a decision that was surprising in both its sweep and its unanimity. 'But so, too, is the interest of religious groups in choosing who will preach their beliefs, teach their faith and carry out their mission.'"

The Supreme Court feels that religious institutions have a right to make their own decisions when it comes to preaching their beliefs, but the president feels that people who's beliefs are different then his should be punished when it comes to protecting your overall well being. That the government should take it upon themselves to enforce their beliefs on religion. Hum..... sounds a little bit like the reason that people left England in the first place, so that they could worship how they wanted to and not be forced by the government to believe or worship how they wanted them to.

Now, don't get me wrong, I am not calling Obama King George. But I wonder where anyone can believe that this decision is right.

What is even more interesting to me are the comments left on this article. Many readers were saying that Catholics are trying to force their beliefs on the government by covering them under their own requirements. It is simply not that. The Catholic church stands against the use of such things as birth control, the morning after pill, and abortions. So why should they be singled out in general health care coverage because they will not offer these things to patrons, for example, in their hospitals or university clinics. There are always other places that have birth control available and where people can find it if they want it. They have a right as a private institution to refuse those methods to patrons.

I am not Catholic, but I worry that political moves such as this will begin a wave of acceptance from others and will encourage the the growing movement of religious intolerance that is spreading in this country.

HA! Are you kidding me?!?!?!

2012-01-27T15:59:00.003-07:00

Good ol' Newt.....

http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2012/01/gingrich-normal-affairs-romney.html

I'm a Slacker

2012-01-24T16:43:00.001-07:00

To my defense, I haven't had my computer available to me for a while, so I haven't posted anything recently. However, its no real excuse.

What we have been up to:

-We are back in Idaho! It has been great to be here again, especially since it hasn't been that cold and finally snowed last weekend and yesterday. Snow is fun when its not here all the time! And its Aaron's first time really reacting to it and he seems to think its fun! I need to take him out in his snowsuit and let him play. The car trip back here was amazing as well! Aaron slept awesome and wasn't really fussy. In fact, I think the most he cried/complained was for about 10 or 15 minutes.

- Getting back into working out with some ladies at church, I do miss basketball though! Aaron is doing really well being social and playing with other kids. I hope that is a good sign for him to enjoy nursery in a couple of months!

- Bryce is back in school and always busy, but he is doing really well!

Thoughts:

- Children grow very fast. I have to say though that I wouldn't want Aaron to go back to being a baby. I love that he can communicate with me! He can say (and kind of say) lots of things now... lets see if I can remember them:

*Milk "Mil"
*Juice "Ju-Ju"
*Shoe "Shhhhoo"
*Food "Fooo"
*Banana "Na-na"
*Bye Bye (while waving with both hands)
*Hi (waves with one hand)
*Uh-oh
*Ball (with a "baseet ball" variation)
*Dada
*Mama
*Baby
*Yay
*Up (more of a p sound, sometimes it sounds like up backwards for some reason hahaha)
*Book "Boo" He loves books! He will just sit down with one, look through it, and get up for a new one. He talks to them and points at things he knows (mostly round things are called balls). He doesn't like them to be read to him, but he likes to have things pointed out and animal sounds made. When we show him pictures of cats he says "mew" and pictures of dogs he does a very deep bark from his lungs that sounds like a "humph" its quite funny. He likes to mimic other sounds as well but he will do the cat and dog sounds on his own.

I think there are more, but I can't think of them right now! Its just so fun to watch him go from this:

To this:

- I love it when Bryce has facial hair. HA! I know this is a very random thought but thats ok. (Please excuse my odd bangs in this picture.)

- I want a new car. Big surprise there. A two door car with a baby and traveling back and forth.... I'm getting bored of it. Something that is a little more stable in the winter would be nice as well.

- I am pretty sure the only thing that keeps me sane is reading scriptures and seeing Aaron right after he wakes up.

- A ton of the people that were pregnant at the same time as me are pregnant again. I don't feel bad that I am not. In fact, I am still in the remembering stage, it will still be some time I am sure.

- Pinterest is an amazing place to get ideas for my hair. Especially when it is something I can do without blowdrying my hair.

- The most amazing thing for me to do is paint my fingernails. Every few nights, after Aaron goes to bed, I paint my nails. It makes me feel clean and pretty. Also, its been the most amazing thing to keep me from biting my nails. A horrible habit, but I have stopped it by painting them!

- Sam's Club is not as cranky as Costco when it comes to sharing membership. How fortunate for me!

- Photoshop is amazing and I am so happy when people ask me to do something for them so I can use it! I wish I had more opportunities to design things. InDesign and Illustrator are up there too!

Numero Uno!!

2011-10-11T21:23:00.001-06:00

My sweet little boy turned 1!! We had a monster themed party for him with these cupcakes that my mom and I made.

I took him to the doctor today.

Here are his stats:

Head: 46 cm (25-50%)
Height: 30" (50%)
Weight: 18 lbs. 15 oz. (5%)

Words he says:

Mama
Dada
Uh-oh
Ow
Ball (it sounds more like "ba" but he knows what he is saying)

He is just about walking.... He is choosing not to at the moment. He stands by himself, until he realizes what he is doing and sits down. He will walk around holding one hand.

Current favorite toy is his basketball. He got a mini ball for his birthday and will play with it forever! And I am not kidding when I say forever. He will throw it around for about 45 minutes before even noticing that he is alone.

I love him so much! I am so blessed to be his mother! He is making me into a more patient person and a better person in general. Being a mother is one of the best things I have ever done in my life. The other one was marrying Bryce.

Its been long!!

2011-10-07T08:49:00.000-06:00

I haven't posted on here for a long time!!!!

Big surprise.

I have updates on Aaron to document, but I will do that after his one year appointment on tuesday.

We are in washington and will be for about 3 more months. It was snowing yesterday in Idaho and I am happy to say its not snowing here! It has rained quite a bit in the past week or so, but I love rain :D I think it should rain more in Idaho and not snow as much... Just my personal opinion.... I'll let "mother nature" know.

I have realized that people are too spread out. Pretty soon half of my family will be on the opposite side of the country, this makes me sad. My friends are all over the place, or never in the same place at the same time. When we are in the same place it seems like the hardest thing to get together.... Laura that means you.

Here are a few pictures to finish off the post:

Please excuse the sweaty faces... exercise will do that, but we look happy so I like it!

Bryce will laugh when he sees that I put these two up. They were taken when we were engaged (so it will have been 3 years this January) and I told Bryce that he had to swear he would never put them up anywhere... But I don't really care that much anymore! HA! I was doing homework and he was hanging with me and decided to tease my hair (he has a great love for doing this for some reason) This is the result:

Bryce's camera has the silly frames on it and this was taken just a little while after we were married.

Teeth!

2011-07-11T12:49:00.001-06:00

You will probably have to click to enlarge the pictures to see his 2 little bottom teeth.

Climbing and Crawling

2011-07-11T11:39:00.000-06:00

I can't control him anymore :D

Playing in the Water

2011-07-05T09:01:00.001-06:00

Aaron was lucky enough to play in the water a lot this weekend as it was VERY warm :D

We went to the new water park in Rexburg, called Rexburg Rapids. It was a pretty awesome place and it was his first time in a pool. Here is a video of his reaction:

Aaron and his cousin Travis were both up past their bed times by the time we left, and I am pretty sure that is why he reacted so badly to the water at first. Travis likes to give Aaron hugs by leaning his head into Aaron's so we took a picture of the tired cousin love!

He was just too tired:

He was a lot happier after he got dressed in warm clothes and was sitting with his Daddy.

Then, on the 4th, we broke out his little pool at home. Bryce had looked at the weather and it said it was supposed to be 97 degrees so we knew he would want to sit in it and we made sure to fill it up in the morning so it would warm up. So here are some pictures of him in the pool.

9 Months!!!

2011-06-30T17:27:00.000-06:00

I was so excited to take Aaron to the doctor yesterday, not only because we get to find out how much he has grown, but also because he wasn't getting any shots!! (A good trip for both of us!!! haha) So here are his stats:

Height: 29" - 90th Percentile
Weight: 16 lbs 13 oz - 10th Percentile
Head Circumference: 18" - Between 50th and 75th Percentile

He jumped up in his height percentile but the other two are exactly the same. The doctor also pointed out to me the 2 teeth coming up on his bottom jaw. One of them is a little higher than the other but they are hard to look at (Aaron does not enjoy the invasion of his mouth much!).

It was so nice to talk to the doctor. I totally ignore all the milestones for his age because most babies progress in different things at different times. Aaron has been army crawling (mostly backwards) for a long time now and I am just perfectly fine with it!!! I can still leave him in a room and not worry about gating him in or anything. He will crawl-crawl whenever he decides to. The doctor told me that MOST babies at 9 months are just learning to sit upright steadily and he has been doing that for a while now. He is very strong and has all the strength he needs he just has a will of his own.

One way that he likes to show his will is waking up in the middle of the night. Now he does sleep through the night for a baby (which is 5-6 hours, not the 8-9 that we sleep) and then wakes up a couple of times after that. He is a screamer. I think he has bad dreams by how he wakes up, but the only way to calm him down is to feed him. If I don't, and try to rock him to sleep (which takes about an hour), he will wake up an hour later... so I feed him!! The doctor suggested that I give him formula at night instead. I tried it last night and he fought me but eventually gave in to eating the bottle. I am thinking if this works I can use formula for a while and then switch to water and eventually just get him to drink from his cup.

He is seriously the most entertaining little kid and I feel that it is a total blessing to hang out with him all day. Here are some new-er things that he does:

1. Waves
2. Says "mama" but non specifically
3. Eats A TON! I am always shocked at how much food he can eat in a day... He loves the little puffs, graham crackers, baby food meat, and yogurt.
4. Moves toys back and forth between hands
5. Army crawling. Sometimes he will even get up on his hands and toes, in a full plank position, this makes me laugh.
6. Puts everything in his mouth. He has been doing this for a while, the fun thing is that I can feel his teeth when he puts my finger in his mouth.
7. The "victory" stance (as Bryce likes to call it) He will take an object and hold it up in the air and twist it in his hand. Bryce says "Victory! Victory" when he does it :D
8. He LOVES LOVES LOVES to look at himself in the mirror. This is another thing he has been doing for a while however, it has been getting more intense recently. He will laugh and talk to himself now.
9. He also loves the grass. It has been warm out so I will take him outside and put him on a blanket. He always finds a way to get off the blanket and be right on the grass, and tries to eat it.
10. Tries to feed himself. I don't let him do this as much as I should with his baby food (he can feed himself puffs and graham crackers very well) because he always makes a mess but he desperately tries to put the food in his mouth with the spoon.

A video :D

2011-06-22T11:33:00.000-06:00

Awesome!

2011-06-16T13:26:00.000-06:00

This is a quote from a devotional Sister Ann M. Madsen (the wife of the late Truman G. Madsen) gave earlier this semester at BYU-I:

"Metabolize hurt through charity. Do you know how that works? ... When someone hurts you, you look at them through the eyes of God and say 'I love you. You are a child of Heavenly Father. Whatever you've done to hurt me is just a mistake. You have more inside of you than that mistake, and so I can forget that.'"

I just love how she said that!!! Amazing!!! :D

Silly Things

2011-06-07T10:56:00.002-06:00

- Why isn't the number 11 pronounced onety-one?

- If people from Poland are called Poles, then why aren't people from Holland called Holes?

- If a pig loses its voice, is it disgruntled?

- Why is a person who plays the piano called pianist, but a person who drives a race car is not called a racist?

- If lawyers are disbarred and clergyman defrocked, then doesn't it follow that electricians can be delighted, musicians denoted, cowboys deranged, models deposed, and dry cleaners depressed?

- If Fed Ex and UPS were to merge, would they call it Fed UP?

- Do Lipton Tea employees take coffee breaks?

- What hair color do they put on the driver's licences of bald men?

- There is no egg in eggplant, ham in hamburger, or apple in pineapple.

- Quicksand works slowly, boxing rings are square.

- If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what do humanitarians eat?

- Why do we have noses that run and feet that smell?

8 Months!

2011-05-31T11:51:00.001-06:00

I can not believe that Aaron is already 8 months old. It just blows my mind! He is still relatively small for his age (he still wears 3-6 month clothes) but I wouldn't have him any other way. I love him! Here are some pictures, well a lot of pictures:

Bryce took this picture. He was riding in the back of the car in the dark and we looked at him while carrying him inside and he looked scared. He grabbed onto this little blanket of his to find comfort! I think if he could talk he would tell his Auntie Ellen thank you for it :D

Finding comfort from his Easter bunny from Oma. I started trying the stuffed animal with him because he kept crying in his sleep and wanting comfort from my finger to get back to sleep... so the bunny came to the rescue.

I'm not sure if you can tell what this picture is of very well but I love it! The yellow behind the mesh is his shirt... you can see his little face like this all the time when he sleeps because he likes to sleep with his face against the mesh for some reason.

These next pictures are from a little "photo shoot" that I had with him one morning. I was trying to get a picture to put up for a Gerber baby competition, and got some silly ones of him. I love the first 2, with his "serious" face.

This is the picture I used for the competition:

He was done at this point and I got the best picture of a very tired baby :D

Girl Loves Glam Giveaway!!!

2011-05-29T19:45:00.002-06:00

Ok..... I am obsessed! I am totally in love with everything McKenzie makes! She has an awesome etsy shop Artistry By McKenzie G and if you live in southeastern Idaho, she also has a display at the farmers markets (The Sunset Market at Grand Teton Mall and Pier View Market at Snake River Landing) We just went to the Pier View Market on Saturday and I got some teal feather extensions put in my hair! I love them! Check out McKenzie's blog Girl Loves Glam to check out a giveaway happening right now!

Here are some of her things that I love! If i win... I am going to have a rough time deciding what to get!! (all the pics are links if you want to check them out!)

Fun in the Sun!!!

2011-05-22T19:28:00.001-06:00

Just playing outside a couple of days ago!

(Just over) 7 Months!

2011-05-10T16:03:00.001-06:00

Aaron has become a very easy baby and I am very happy about it. We were able to leave him with Bryce's aunt last weekend and go on a date (a long overdue trip to the temple. Then Red Robin YUM!!) and he was just perfect. I am so happy that he does well (for now) with other people.

He has also been really awesome at sleeping. I just gradually worked him off of being bounced to sleep and now I can lay him down with his eyes open and he goes right to sleep! He has been off his schedule for the past couple of days (I am thinking teeth may be coming soon) but overall he is an awesome sleeper! Oh and I don't swaddle him anymore, we gradually worked him off of that too, but at night he does sleep in what we like to call the baby sack :D

Other than that, he eats like crazy and loves all food (he is actually starting to be ok with eating meat. He prefers it cold, odd that he has a preference already) he is a super eater! He still rolls both ways and will go up all the way on his hands or up on his knees, but not quite to doing both yet. I put him on his stomach as much as possible, which usually only takes me putting him on his back and he immediately flips to his stomach. He is just way to fun and I am so blessed to be a mom and be able to stay home with my little boy!

Just a thought on Mothers

2011-05-06T10:29:00.001-06:00

I read this blog post and I really enjoyed it. If you are interested in reading it.... here is the link:

Invisible Mothers

Happy Early Mothers Day to everyone. I love my mom so much, and honestly I think this invisible mom's post was how I treated her a lot of the time (especially the drive me to the store thing hahaha) Love you mom!!!

A Belated Anniversary Post

2011-04-17T22:01:00.001-06:00

This past monday (yes almost a week ago) was our 2 year wedding anniversary! We had a lot of fun visiting Bryce's aunts and Ellen was nice enough to watch little Aaron so that we could go on a date. We saw this:

And ate here:

It was A LOT of fun to go out and chill without the baby, even though we talked about how much we love the baby pretty much the whole time hahahaha :D

We also got to go to this wonderful place:

With Kathy and it was YUMMY!!!

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to both Kathy and Ellen, for hanging out with us and for letting us stay at your house :D

I am so blessed to have Bryce as my husband! He supports me in everything that I do and helps me as much as he can, even when he is overloaded with school! I love him so much and I love our little family. We both agreed that having a baby has strengthened out marriage so much. I think it helps that with a babe you have to pretty much become completely selfless and that helps with spouse interaction as well (its easier to be selfless to something that doesn't talk to you..... yet hahahaha)

One of the biggest blessings that I have though is that my husband is a faithful priesthood holder and we were married in the temple and our family will be together forever!!! Happy Anniversary Bryce!!

Sitting Up!!

2011-04-07T09:23:00.001-06:00

I LOVE THIS PICTURE!!!!!

That is all :D

6 Months!!! (yes I skipped 5 months... sadly)

2011-03-30T12:23:00.001-06:00

Its hard to believe that my little boy is 6 months old already! He has been here for a half a year!! Just crazy! He had a doctors appointment yesterday where he had 3 shots and of course he did not enjoy that! He gets pretty clingy after having shots, which makes it a little hard to get things done, but I just cuddle with him and know that I can do everything later. He will only be little for a little while longer!

Speaking of growing..... He has grown quite a lot! He is now 26.5" long (or tall which ever you prefer) and he weighs 14 lbs 5 oz. He is getting to be in between 50th and 75th percentile in hight and is still in the 10th percentile for weight. But he is being consistant so that makes me happy! He moved from below 50th to above 50th in head circumference, but his height and head are working together to make him look proportionate which again, makes me happy :D

I just love him so much! New Aaron tricks:

Rolling both ways (front to back and back to front)
Talking and talking and talking
Responding to his name
Recognizing his mommy and daddy
My personal favorite: staring at people and observing their faces
Seeing things far away
He can pretty much sit up by himself. He will hold himself up with his arms and leans a tiny bit on a pillow. All he ever wants to do is sit up, no more laying down!
LOVES to look at himself in the mirror
Holds things and brings them closer to him, including his spoon and his sippy cup
He knows when you are making fun of him, this is kind of a funny thing and he probably isn't as developed in it but when you mimic him crying, he gets very upset at you.

LOTS of pictures to share.... Its just so fun to document all that he does! He is growing up too fast!

Loving the Johnny Jump Up... he doesn't stay in it too long, but it helps me a lot when he hangs in it!

I love this hat! It doesn't quite fit him yet, but I wanted to see what he looked like with it on. Bryce likes to say that he looks Russian! hahaha

Bald IS beautiful!!

Just a silly picture! Bryce is really good at capturing them :D

Drinking from his big boy cup. He really does not like bottles so this is the best way to get his apple juice into him... not a very lovely story for the blog :D

Just being cute :D

He looks like such a little boy in this picture and not as much like a baby.

His hands are ALWAYS in his mouth!

He fell asleep on me and was just too cute to not take a picture of!

Eating bananas, his favorite so far. He actually is not normally this messy when he eats but its cute to be messy when you are a baby.

Being adorable after his bath!

Anyone who knows about Bryce and his love for heaters, hahaha, would understand why we would take his picture. Aaron gets really really cold after his bath and cries like crazy.... so I have taken to putting him in front of the heater when we are done, and he looks at the heater with so much love in his eyes that it reminded me of Bryce.... hence the picture.

Valentines Day Festivities

2011-02-15T16:32:00.001-07:00

For Valentines Day this year I decided to have fun and decorate a little... and by I little I mean a little, I literally just used stuff that we already had and tried to "make it work!!" (Oh how I miss Project Runway!!!) NE ways... this is what I came up with. Bryce liked it so much that he decided to take pictures of it!

My first attempt ever at making paper flowers. They were not anywhere close to being perfect or anything, and I really wish I would have been able to make more, but the little baby face boy needed attention :D

I made cobb salad. It's one of my favorites and happened to be on the menu for last night. Can I just say that I LOVE LOVE LOVE having a meal plan. We have a whole month planned out and every monday is "try something new night." I feel so liberated! I always dreaded trying to decide what to have for dinner and now I don't have to. I just look at the calendar and obey. On our way back to Idaho this past December I forced Bryce to help me come up with enough meals for a month (excluding mondays.) And now at the end of every month I decide what to have the next month's mondays. Sorry that was long, its just about my favorite thing right now!!

These are the place mats that I made. They were SO complicated to make (dripping in sarcasm of course.) I just took construction paper and made hearts and glued them to another piece of paper. The most complicated thing was rounding the corners, tracing a circular object and cutting them out. But I didn't think they were too bad. In the center are Kisses and pearls.

Ok so I know it isn't the most fancy or beautiful thing ever, but it was fun to do something different and for extremely cheap! I hope you all had a great Valentines day too!

Just a Picture or Two

2011-02-09T18:40:00.001-07:00

I was messing around with the camera today while hanging with the little guy... Nothing too crazy but I really liked this angle of the chunk face (our nickname for Aaron hahaha.)

Anyone who has ever taken a photography class has probably been asked at some time to do a "motion blurred" picture... Well anyone who has ever taken a photo of a baby knows that if you don't have to try much to get one! hahaha I like how this turned out and the fact that it was purely accidental. This outfit was so fun to take pictures with because of the fun fabric! And its so true.... we do love him!!!

The King of Cute turns 4 months!

2011-02-03T18:37:00.001-07:00

I just can't even describe how much I love my little boy! He is amazing and I love to watch him discover things and talk to his toy monkey :D We took him to the doctor on tuesday and he is definitely a growing boy. He is now 25 inches long, and 12 lbs. 14 oz.

He recently started eating rice cereal and he loves it. The doctor let me know that we should be feeding him more often, which is nice for me. He is so ready to be eating more solid foods! He is showing every sign of being interested in food, including trying to eat my lunch today and was angry when I wouldn't feed it to him!

This is such a fun picture for me! One of my favorite things to see is my sweet little boy sleeping and I love to see him break free of his swaddle. (I think it's cute!)

YUMM YUMM YUMM

2011-01-25T17:53:00.001-07:00

So pretty much these look like the most amazing cupcakes that I have EVER seen in my entire life! And I would love to win them :D Check out the blog and enter to win if you live in Idaho... if you don't... enter to win them and give them to me hahahaha jk

http://vanillaspicecupcakes.blogspot.com/2011/01/valentine-day-cupcake-giveaway.html

Check out the rest of the blog for some other amazing cupcake creations!

3 Months Old!

2011-01-06T15:22:00.002-07:00

Aaron is now 3 months old (and 1 week!) and man is he different! He talks and giggles and stares and looks like a little man. We are back in Idaho and he did not enjoy his first experience in negative weather or 12 hour drives! But he is getting used to it now. He also had his first experience at BYU-Idaho this week when we went with Bryce to get his books... he slept the whole time we were there! :D I was totally ok with that. Here are some pictures we have taken of him recently.

This first one is from when we had to scrub off all his nasty cradle cap... it was BAD and NOTHING was making it go away, really I tried everything! The dr said to use selsun blue. We only use it every few days since it hurts his scalp a bit but it works!!

I love these next two pictures....
Before:

After

Another silly face!

Loving his bathtub from Aunt Kathy!!! :D

This sweater was made for him by Kathy Anderson and I love it!

2 Months Old!

2010-11-30T18:13:00.002-07:00

Apparently I only write on here once a month.... Oh well....

Aaron is 2 months old today! That is just crazy to me but I am so happy because he is doing a lot of new fun things. Lets just list a few of them:

1. Sleeping! What a wonderful thing for me! He sleeps usually in 3 to 4 hour stints now and I am not feeling very sleep deprived anymore, which I can tell because I no longer fall asleep when my head hits the pillow... it takes a few minutes for me to fall asleep.

2. Talking! Oh how I love his little coos! He first started talking to Bryce and a toy monkey and never me... but he talks around me now.

3. Smiling! Aaron has become a little smiling machine. Of course I see it a lot because I am always staring at him (not in a creepy way though haha!) He makes these adorable little grins all the way to mouth open little giggle-coos! It is a lot of fun.

I love him so much! And I love my little family! Bryce is so amazing with him. We make a great team :D

The following pics are of Aaron's red hair! When he was first born everyone thought it was going to be strawberry blonde but now he has a nice glow about him. His hair is a lot closer to my hair color. Its hard to see now because he has hardly any hair, but it will grow eventually. (oh and I apologize for the spit up haha)

1 Month Old!

2010-11-01T14:38:00.001-06:00

Time has definitely gone by fast, and Aaron is a month old! We took him to the trunk-or-treat at church on Saturday and he was a lion. In fact, he wore the same outfit that I did my first halloween. Aaron was born 6 days after my birthday so we were about the same size (I weighed more when I was born, but we were about the same length.) We set him down to take pictures of him and he started making smiley faces! We got one picture of him... he kept not smiling when we actually took the picture, of course. hahaha.

I am so happy to report that he seems to be switching over from being nocturnal to normal!! Which makes my sleeping at night so much nicer. He is an amazing little baby. He does not like to change his clothes or to take a bath, and he eats every 2 hours.... and he makes you feed him every 2 hours... unless you would like to hold a baby screaming his head off :D but he gives a lot of other clues to the fact that he is hungry before then so I try to catch it before the crying begins. Hopefully he will start spreading out his feedings during the day time. He can go for 4 hours at night without eating... that is a good sign I suppose.

Aaron's First Bath

2010-10-12T16:03:00.001-06:00

Well it was a fun experience to give Aaron his first bath today, however, he did not like it at all. He screamed and screamed pretty much the whole time. I was hoping that maybe he would like being in the water but apparently his swimming gene hasn't kicked in yet. Afterward I was trying to dress him and he kept panicking, but once I got him all the way dressed he calmed down. I had to hold him for a long time after as well because he was still in shock, but I got a few pictures with his eyes open so that was a nice outcome.

I can not even begin to express how much I love this little guy! And it is amazing how much my love has grown for Bryce as well. We are having a lot of fun with him, especially when he sleeps for longer than 2 hour periods at night :D I am so happy to be a mom!

He has arrived!

2010-10-05T13:48:00.001-06:00

Funny story... I wrote the last post on my blog about being 2 weeks away from my due date and that I would put pictures up of my belly that day, but that never happened because I went into labor later that evening! So here is the story:

At 5:00 when Bryce got home from work we went into town to run some errands. Our last stop was Joann Fabrics and while in line (5:45 at this point), I felt the first contraction. It was pretty intense but I didn't think much about it. Then on the way home, I felt another one.... and after we got home, another. I was having pretty consistent contractions 10 mins apart. Bryce and I then decided to get in the spa and relax. I figured I was just having "near end of pregnancy" contractions and that being in the spa would relieve the pressure on my back. Well, in the spa (about 7:30) I had an even more intense contraction... I had a harder time talking through that one. After that, the strong contractions just kept coming... at about 3-5 mins apart. I was having a hard time talking and had to focus my breathing in order to get through a contraction.

After having had the contractions for about an hour and a half consistently 3-4 mins apart, I called the hospital to see when they would want me to come in just in case this wasn't false labor. They said that since it was my first baby that I could wait another hour or so and then come in (or if my water broke or it became too uncomfortable to be at home). I had gotten up to use the bathroom at one point and as I was trying to walk back to the couch where I had been lying down I had a contraction and couldn't walk anymore. I laid down in the middle of the hallway until it passed, but as I walked around it made the contractions come faster. It had been about an hour after I had called the hospital that it became too much and we left.

We got to the hospital at 10, and some of the nurses were having a competition to see if I was actually in labor or not... it being my first baby and all (my nurse said that she was pulling for actually in labor because she had been in the room while I was having contractions). But they checked me and I was only dilated to a 1... but 100% effaced and that's why my contractions were so intense. I was progressively having stronger contractions and at about 11 my water broke. They moved me into a labor room, and things just started getting more and more intense. After that, I am not too sure about the timing of things, I was a little distracted :D

I had an IV put in while I was waiting for my epidural... there was a line sadly and the other lady was dilated to a 7 so she had priority, I was probably at a 5 at this point. I had the epidural about an hour and a half before I had the baby so it had to have been at about 1:30 that the anesthesiologist was done. I was a lot happier at this point and was able to relax... a bit... and I had the little baby at 3:05. He was 19 inches long, 6 lbs 5 oz.

2 weeks!

2010-09-29T14:12:00.001-06:00

Thats right! I am due 2 weeks from today. EEK!! I am planning on taking some pictures of my belly later on today so I will add those later... but I actually have one! It took a long time for my belly to appear and some people still don't believe me that I am as far a long as I am, but I know I am. I can definitely feel the baby, and I can feel how big he is inside. My favorite thing is that sometimes it feels like he is trying to tickle me from the inside, or play the piano :D I cam so excited to have him here and to be able to hold him! I know, I know and have heard so many times that now I want him out and soon I will want him back in... but thats ok. I knew what I was getting myself into when we decided that we wanted to have a baby, so I know that I have so intense responsibility coming up, but honestly, I'm ok with that! Plus, I think I have a little bit of an advantage because of my exposure to babies... including newborns (Thanks to Carrie!!)

On a side note.... I have been LOVING Project Runway this season. It is so nice to have a longer time to watch what goes on and get to know people better. With that said, I can't stand Gretchen and I don't really like her style of clothing... at all. But she is a good seamstress, I will give her that. The other show that I was excited to watch this season I have actually decided to stop watching... and that would be Glee. I can not tell you how much I love the format of the show, who knew that a musical tv show would be as good as it is? But after last night's episode I am done watching it. They took some things A LOT further than they needed to and I don't want to watch a show that decides that those things are ok to have on tv. Oh well, I will get over it.

Pictures to come... I promise!!!

How I Wish We Wore Hats!!!

2010-08-20T17:54:00.001-06:00

After watching last night's Project Runway I must say that I wish it was acceptable for us to wear hats in our everyday life. The challenge was for each designer to take a hat from Philip Treacy's amazing collection of hats and create a look that would pair with the hat. I loved quite a few of the hats chosen for the show however, most of them were very avant garde, and not necessarily something you would wear all the time. Looking at his website I am beginning to think that I should become a hat wearer! There are some very fun hats that are more wearable. You can not, however, obtain images off of his web site, and the hats that I really loved aren't available on Google image search. I did finally find this fun one... but he really does have TONS of more wearable hats. Check out the "collection" part of his web site to see some fun things.

New Doctor

2010-08-17T16:55:00.002-06:00

I went to my first appointment at my new doctor's office today, or I should say a "welcome to the doctors office" appointment. It was mostly filled with getting my info into their computer system, thankfully most of the information that they need about my pregnancy so far was faxed to them by my other doctor's office, so I don't have to repeat anything. I didn't meet the doctor, however, but the nurse that was doing everything was VERY nice! Especially since I had to get my blood pressure taken again because I was so nervous about the new office at the beginning of my appointment that it was really high. I have an appointment with the doctor next tuesday, the 24th. It will be my first time meeting him, and his first day at the office! hahaha But overall I am very happy with the office choice. And I am also really excited about delivering at Tacoma General after having read about their birthing center and let me tell you, they are awesome!! Its nice to feel relaxed about everything.... for right now at least :D

Getting ready to leave Idaho...

2010-07-22T09:47:00.001-06:00

I started pre-packing yesterday... meaning I go through my shoes and drawers and closet and decide what I am going to bring before I even get out my suitcase. This may sound crazy, but I like to get things out that I "need" and then go through them again when I am packing and take out the things that are not the necessary. Now, you may wonder why I go to this much trouble when packing, especially since it is packing for 5 months, you would think I would want to bring a lot. Last year we learned an important lesson about packing for the 5 months, we bring way more than we need or ever use! And since this trip is a little different, seeing as we will have a baby with us on the way back, we need to be extra skimpy on what we pack because we have to fit the baby in there somehow :D I know it is very possible for us to pack light, especially since all we really have to bring is our clothes and some other little things, but every time I pack I realize some interesting things about myself, and probably other people too.

1. I am way too "high-maintenance" when it comes to shoes. I currently have 10 pairs of shoes lined up to go. But of course, I have a justification for each pair... tennis shoes for exercise and outdoor activities, basketball shoes for basketball :D, brown flats & black flats-- what I pretty much wear all the time, black sandals & brown sandals--for the warmth we still have left, 2 pairs of black heels-- one pair is sandal-y and one is classic and I like both for church, and finally black boots and grey boots--again I wear them both to church and sometimes to other activities as well. The problem is that we catch summer and fall in washington and that requires different shoes. I know, I'm crazy, but I can't get rid of any of them. I love my shoes!

2. Exercise clothes are just one extra thing to pack... I have gained a love for exercising because of the energy it gives me, especially during pregnancy, but its just another set of clothes to add to the list!

3. I hate socks. They make my feet feel claustrophobic. If I wear socks they are those little sad excuses for socks that fit inside of flats. But I always bring socks just to wear around the house, again just another thing to add to the list. Oh and I hate exercising with socks on! My feet get WAY TOO HOT... I need shoes that are completely made of one single piece of mesh fabric and some kind of cooling in the insoles. Yes, my feet get THAT hot... its very distracting when I exercise.

4. Our expand-o files hold the key to our lives in them! We keep all important papers and information in an expand-o file and I love them!!! It makes it so easy to carry around everything and not have to worry about them falling out of a folder or something.

5. Moving around can be fun but also a little unsettling. I really love Washington, and I love that we get to be around family when we have the baby, but I really wish that we could just stay in one place sometimes. I love the people that we get to associate with in Idaho, our ward is awesome! But I don't really like leaving and coming back all the time. One big thing is that we don't often get callings and that makes me sad, however, I have loved teaching in RS these past few months, but I am sad to leave it. I am totally excited about being able to be in Olalla ward this time around though. I feel very comfortable with them, which is why they call it your "home" ward right? :D

Well this post is incredibly long, and I didn't even post ne thing about the baby. That will be soon to come I promise! Lots to tell about the little guy!

What has been happening lately...

2010-07-06T15:45:00.000-06:00

I know I haven't blogged for a long time, but I guess I feel like life isn't that interesting to blog about. But interesting things have been happening more often lately, so I have more to talk about.

Last week I had the opportunity to go to Jackson Hole and Yellowstone with the Merrills and I had so much fun! I took some pictures of places I hadn't been to in Yellowstone, and here are some of them:

Ultrasound Pics

2010-05-27T14:31:00.001-06:00

These 2 pics are my favorite

This first one is a profile picture (if you cant tell.... ultrasound pics don't look as good as the real thing did.)

Oh boy! hahaha here he was showing off his guns. I love that you can see the bones in his arms and fingers. He kept his arms like this A LOT... crossed in front of his face. My doctor said today that he is definitely a boy because he is already flexing his muscles! haha

ITS A BOY!!

2010-05-26T20:57:00.000-06:00

I am so excited! I had my ultrasound today, and after much coaxing the boy finally uncrossed his legs! hahaha It wasn't for sure at first, but right at the end we got a good shot of him. I am just so happy, also, that he is measuring perfectly and everything about him is perfect!! The tech was showing us all of what she was looking for, and I was proud of myself that I could recognize the ventricles in his brain :D

I will put up pics as soon as I can get them scanned.... we attempted to take pictures of them but they are very shiny and the blur was blocking his face. Oh and in true boy fashion, he was showing off his guns hahaha. We got a lot of good shots of his head and face and arms.

BABY!

2010-05-22T14:22:00.000-06:00

I have an ultra sound on Wednesday the 26th and I am SO excited!!! We are having a 3-D one done so we will be able to SEE our baby, which is a little crazy if you ask me. I just want to know what we are having more than anything! The biggest reason for this is that I want to pick out a name. We kind of undecidedly decided that we wouldn't pick out a name until we know the gender... our biggest problem will be narrowing it down because we have a lot of names on our list.

The thing that I am really bummed about right now is how much (or really not) that I am showing. My mom was the same way... that you don't really show until later in pregnancy, which is nice because I can still wear my clothes but I just wish I looked pregnant! hahahaha I have a friend who is 3 weeks behind me and she looks about 3 months ahead of me! Well maybe not 3 months but you get the point, she LOOKS pregnant and I don't really... I am still very good at hiding it. But I guess the most important thing is that I am measuring perfectly which means that the baby is growing fine :D he/she is about 6 inches long now!

I had a moment the other day, when I realized that this was all for real. That might sound silly but it is still hard for me to think that I am going to be a mom. Bryce's Aunt Kathy was so kind and already sent us some presents! Well one thing we got is a bouncer... I put the bouncer together when it got here and decided (after putting that thing together) that I wouldn't take it down and so it is sitting in our living room. I looked at it while I was cooking dinner that night and had a "Wow... my baby will be sitting in there!" moment hahaha. I am just SO happy!! I am so excited to be able to be a mom and to have a child that is our baby! And I know that Bryce is going to be an AMAZING father! He is so cute and good with little kids and I can't wait to see his face the day we get to meet our little one :D

SHOES!

2010-05-10T19:58:00.001-06:00

I am just way too excited about these 2 pairs of shoes that I bought last friday, that I couldn't help but show them on here!

The sandals are from Target, and the high-heels are from Khols. I absolutely love both pairs, and the high-heels are actually very comfortable! Another good part is that Bryce helped me pick them out, which is very rare. It is really nice to have his opinion and he actually is really fun to go shopping with because he is honest, and I really appreciate it when it comes to spending money.

Oh and by the way, we went to see Iron Man 2 on Saturday and I really liked it! I'm not a fan of Scarlett Johansson and I was discouraged when I found out she is in the movie, but the part suited her very well. Any ways just don't believe what the critics say about the movie. It was funny and I actually enjoyed the story line.

Testimony of the Book of Mormon

2010-05-03T19:50:00.000-06:00

Hair!!

2010-04-27T17:28:00.000-06:00

Here is my haircut! :D

Happenings as of late

2010-04-23T11:33:00.000-06:00

It seems to me like a lot of things have been going on lately.

The biggest thing that I am happy about is my PR Campaigns group. This class is the capstone of my whole major and something I was scared and excited for. We did our campaign for the 2010 US Census, and out of the whole class, my group got the highest grade. I was already pretty stoked about this, but I was even more stoked to see our name (BYU-I Pentamerous PR) here:
http://www.prssa.org/news/news.aspx?Id=982
This is a national PR competition that, as you can see, had 68 entries from all over the US. Its kind of a big deal for us PR kids... especially since professionals recognize this since it is in correlation with PRSSA and PRSA (Public Relations Student Society of America and Public Relations Society of America.) All PR professionals know of or are a part of PRSA and this is just an awesome thing to put on my resume!

Number 2 on the list... Tight pants and feeling fat. hahaha. I know that I am pregnant but if you didn't know that I am, you would think that I was bloated pretty horribly. I have also been having pains from stretching inside of me... but feeling fat is the worst. I get so discouraged getting dressed in the morning because I don't want to wear my clothes but I am not showing at all really so wearing maternity clothes is just silly. I have worn a maternity shirt twice now, including today, but its just silly to wear them really.

I got my hair cut... and I mean cut! Chopped off about 6 inches! Which is good because I love it and its not too short for me (still just below my shoulders) and it will grow out perfect. Bryce really talked me into it. I had been looking at hairstyles online for a while and contemplating just putting layers in or chopping off enough that my grown out roots were gone. We decided on the latter. I don't have any pictures of it that I like but I promise that I am working on it. If my camera weren't broken on my computer than I would have one up!

I decided that I am going to get contacts. There are SO many pros and cons to having glasses and contacts that I had been swaying back and forth on the matter, but my final decision was made this past Sunday. Bryce and I had gone outside to lay out in the sun and it was BLARING me in the face! I couldn't handle it! I decided right there, and expressed it to Bryce haha, that I was getting contacts. My appointment is next thursday.

Thats about all that I can think of right now. I promise I will try and get a picture up soon of my hair!

I am having a baby!!

2010-03-29T07:55:00.001-06:00

Well I guess its official because its up on facebook! hahaha.... But I am going to have a baby! Bryce and I are so excited. I am due October 13th and I am so glad that it will be when we are in Washington already. I'm happy that we can have parents there, and that I can have my mom :D

I haven't been feeling very sick at all, which has been amazing since my whole first trimester has been during my last semester of school. Literally, my 3 month mark is this Thursday and it is a week before I graduate! hahaha Great timing hu? The only thing that has been difficult with school is feeling so exhausted and therefore not wanting to do my homework!

Things I can not eat (much to Bryce's dismay):

1. Beef

2. Sausage

3. Eggs

Bryce is getting a little bored of eating chicken all the time! But I just can't do red meat at all. I am totally bummed about the eggs.... scrambled eggs are my favorite and I usually can't eat them at all. I did, however, eat some the other day with hash-browns and TONS of ketchup so I was ok. I somehow avoided smelling the eggs while I was cooking them and that helped. Other then that all I want to eat is fruit and drink orange juice :D

I have my 2nd appointment this week and we get to hear the heart beat! So excited. I won't find out until June what I am having and that seems really far away, but we are patiently waiting. We have 2 very long lists of names that we both like, so no specifics there.

I can not even express how excited and nervous I feel, but I know that everything will be ok. Its nice to know, however, that no matter where Bryce and I go we will always have family around that are willing to help. Just last Friday night Bryce's aunts were talking about how excited they are to have our baby around them!

Oh and the picture! I came up with this idea to post on my family's web site to tell them that I am pregnant. It is also up on facebook now. Bryce also wanted to join in so we took a picture of him and it is currently his profile picture. I will have to get it from him and put it up on here!

YAY!!!

2010-03-25T10:47:00.000-06:00

I just picked up my graduation stuff! My name card, my tassel, and some candy from the Alumni Association. It is definitely feeling more real now... I am graduating in 15 days!!! Only 8 days of actual classes left! AAAAHHHHHH!!!

Another article....

2010-03-23T13:40:00.000-06:00

Yeah its in the opinion section, but I thought it interesting that this kind of article was coming from the "not so conservative" LA Times.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-goldberg23-2010mar23,0,6611246.column?track=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+latimes/mostviewed+(L.A.+Times+-+Most+Viewed+Stories)

Health Care Reform

2010-03-23T09:44:00.001-06:00

I just wanted to share this article with everyone. It is very informative on all aspects of the new bill passed on Sunday.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/03/19/us/politics/20100319-health-care-reconciliation.html#tab=0

I am not going to share my opinion on it. It is a little mixed at this point, but the thing that I do want to say is that we all need to be educated. Take the time to read about that is going on in our country. We live in a place where we have SO much information at our finger tips. Read information from all types of sources.

Oh what a beautiful mornin' Oh what a beautiful day!

2010-03-16T13:00:00.000-06:00

Just some stress relieving things that have happened today!

1. I woke up and I wasn't tired!!

2. I received an email from the department head of the Agriculture and Life Sciences department telling me that he approved my form to substitute my neurobiology class for the biological sciences GE credit. I can not even explain the amount of agony I felt last Friday when I found out my catalogue year did not count neurobiology as a GE.

3. The PR Campaigns group I am in got RAVE reviews from our professor! We had to turn in a rough draft of our campaign summary and everyone was really stressed about what we would have to change before next week. The group that was meeting with him before us came out 20 minutes later than they were supposed to with a marked up paper and extreme stress on their faces. The teacher then told us that our paper seemed "Celestial" compared to everyone else's. (He also jokingly said that he was almost ready to jump off a building before he read our paper... then laughed and said that it was probably a very inappropriate comment, we all laughed a bit.)

It was so relieving to know they he was happy with our work. These comments definitely gave us the confidence that we needed to finish out strong. We did ask him what grade he would give us on our rough and he said a B.... but he said that it would change just with some "spice" which he then described would come through design work; no stressed added upon me, the designer of our campaign book hahaha. I am just grateful that he saw the effort we put into having a clear and concise booklet.

4. My neurobiology teacher gave us 18 points to add onto our last test scores. That test was CRAZY! The highest score was an 84% and the class average was a 60%. I can not even explain how stressed I was after this test. We are allowed to drop 1 test grade and I had a different test that I wanted to drop and was not excited about dropping a different one. But with the increase I have jumped to my 2nd highest score. HAHAHA I love this class but it is crazy.

Are we there yet?

2010-03-08T09:41:00.000-07:00

I am getting a horrible case of senioritis! Issues with this:

1. I don't want to go to class... except water aerobics, I am totally fine with going to that class.

2. I don't want to do my homework

3. I don't want to study for the 2, count 'em 2!!, Neurobiology tests I have this week.

4. All I want to do is sleep... this is conflicting with my normal tasks of cleaning, cooking and whatever else.

I know it is lame, but I am just plain tired. I have been working hard for the last 5 years and I will graduate with a total of 162 credits!! I really think that the cold state of the weather in Idaho isn't helping at all either. Oh well, back to homework and studying for tests now! 32 days until it is done!!!!! (for now at least)

Ok, I kind of get it...

2010-03-04T09:00:00.000-07:00

LOTS of pics today! Enjoy!

So, I have been pretty upset recently because 3 of the shows that I watch haven't been on. Sadly I just made the connection that 2 of them weren't on because of the Olympics. *Note: I watch everything online because we don't have "regular" TV, just a TV that we watch movies on. * They are both on NBC on thursday nights, makes sense to not play them. But the other show is on ABC on Wednesday nights, and it isn't returning until NEXT week, when the NBC shows are playing tonight. Odd? I think so.... My conclusion.... TV shows on hiatus stink.

I know that all of this seems like an odd thing to care about,but if you were in Rexburg from 7:30 until about 4 or 5 every day, and you were only taking 3 classes, you would want something to do. It's too loud everywhere to read a book (I have to have complete silence to read, just how I am) and so I could aimlessly search the internet and be bored, like the baby, or I could watch something.

I must also include in here my love of Hulu! Thank you NBC and FOX for being smart enough

to come together and make a website where quality isn't an issue and you only watch a

few commercials. It helps with down time from studying Neurobiology, the most brain sucking class I have ever taken. Interesting, but a mind blowing amount of info. Thanks Hulu for keeping me sane :D

What a wonderful day!

2010-02-28T10:15:00.000-07:00

I was reading a talk today, for the R.S. Lesson, called "Seeking to know God, Our heavenly Father, and His Son, Jesus Christ" By Elder Robert D. Hales, and some things hit em pretty hard... Just thought I would share them.

"Belief in God is widely questioned and even attacked in the name of political, social, and even religious causes.... Even so, as members of the restored Church of Jesus Christ, we declare that 'we believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost."

"Some wonder, why belief in God is so important? ... Without God, life would end at the grave and our mortal experiences would have no purpose. Growth and progress would be temporary, accomplishment without value, challenges without meaning. There would be no ultimate right and wrong and no moral responsibility to care for one another as fellow children of God."

"We know that [God] lives because we believe that testimonies of His ancient and living prophets, and we have felt God's Spirit confirm that the testimonies of these prophets are true."

I loved to read the powerful words of Elder Hales! And I loved that he pointed out the 11th article of faith... that "we claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may." It is important to remember that there are many people who do not have the same beliefs and that is awesome! I don't base my friendships upon who believes what, because some of my greatest friends do not believe what I do. And that is the greatest part of life, getting to know many people and creating lasting relationships with them!

My testimony has brought me the greatest happiness in my life. As Elder Hales said "Your personal knowledge of God... will bring you the greatest joy you will ever have." I am the person I am today because of what I know. I know that God lives! I know that Jesus Christ is His Son, and preformed an Atonement for all of our sins and griefs. I have received help and strength from Him in my greatest times of need. They live! They love every single person that has ever lived or will ever live on this earth. And one day, I hope to be able to live with Them again!

** The picture is one of my favorites. "The Lord is my shepherd" He loves and seeks all His sheep! :D

Valentines day!

2010-02-16T09:49:00.000-07:00

Just a fun little note, i have been looking for grey boots for months now and haven't found anything that I really liked, was a decent price, or for the love of pete, fit over my giant calves!! But, I got the perfect ones!! And Bryce bought them for me for Valentines day! Thanks sweetie!

***The boots also fit over my calves when I am wearing jeans (skinny jeans of course) which is amazing; and nice for me since I live in snowy barren Idaho!

Neurobiology

2010-02-10T09:23:00.000-07:00

Yes, my favorite class in the world and my least favorite class as well. We have had 2 tests in this class and I have gotten the exact same score on each test. On both of the tests I felt prepared, even more prepared on the second than the first. I totally understand everything when we are in class and I LOVE it in class. But I suck it up on the tests.

On a positive note I have gotten the 2 lowest grades in the history of my entire life and I'm not freaking out about it. I try my hardest in that class. I read and study and take the quizzes and study and read and study and read. I never do it to the point that I am going insane or overwhelmed, but I do it until I know I understand it. Because of this I feel better about my grade, but still a little frustrated. Luckily my teacher is some what of a pushover and will drop questions that too many people get wrong, and the test are curved. But knowing the crazy science people in my class, they all got 100%. I'm a communication major. I love science but the whole memorizing tons of enzymes and proteins and neurotransmitter.... so not my favorite. Ok, thats all.

The Ramblings of My Mind...

2010-02-02T10:31:00.000-07:00

I've decided that I have some things I would like to address... hahaha that sounds official, really I just want to vent and share some stories...

1) My nephew: My sister just had family pics taken. I LOVE THEM! You should look at them. They are the 3rd post down, "The littlest Gator fan." http://myperfectportraits.blogspot.com/

I love them so much!!! Whenever I am at my sisters house, that boy is almost always in my arms. He is so sweet and loving!

2) Life: Why is it that people go about life arguing with other people? I was reading an article today (October 2009 GC... Elder Watson of the 70) and he gave a quote that I loved. He compared it with the type of world we live in today: "All their good feelings one for another, if they ever had any, were entirely lost in a strife of words and a contest about opinions." I fully agree that we are allowed to have our own opinions, don't get me wrong, I just don't feel like it is necessary to attack other people just because they have an opinion that you don't have. Am I wrong in thinking this? I find it beautiful that we all have our own views in life and ways to feel

and cope with situations; and most of the time our opinions come from past experiences, which makes it even more not fair to judge another person on their opinion.

3) The purpose of our lives: I wonder how people can go about their lives thinking that there is no purpose for us all being on this earth. It seems like much too big of a coincidence that a "big bang" happened (or such) and we all just were here; there is definitely more to us than particles that walk around with little crickets on our shoulders. Thats all I am going to say on that subject for now.

4) The nature of a women: I recently was talking with a friend about how women find fun in looking for ways to "put themselves together." I like to look at clothes, accessories, or new ways to do my hair. I wonder if more women do this than I think.... anyone?

This shall be all of my ramblings for today. I have to get back to my homework.

Its been too long!

2010-01-14T09:55:00.001-07:00

Well, I haven't written on here for a long time!

I just started a new semester.... my LAST semester!!! Woo Hoo!! I am so excited to graduate, it feels like I have been in school forever! (well, since I was 4... so 18 years) I am currently taking 3 classes; Public Relations Campaigns, Neurobiology, and Water Aerobics. PR campaigns is a lot of fun but stressful. My major is PR and for the last few years I have learned how to "do" PR in a purely hypothetical way and now, we have to do it! I am working in a team and we are participating in a national campaign competition! Its exciting but surreal and stressful.

Neurobiology has taught me that I am truly a science nerd at heart. hahaha. I am so fascinated with what I learn in that class. It has been a challenging experience so far (which isn't giving me much hope because we are only in the 2nd week of classes) but I am enjoying the mind stretching!

Speaking of stretching, I love water aerobics! hahaha It is a fun way to incorporate a new type of exercise into my work out plan and I can actually get my heart rate up really well. The teacher taught us some ways to make the work out harder on ourselves so we can work at our own pace so to speak. It has been really fun and its nice to have a class that I don't have to think so much about! :D

Bryce is very busy with his classes, which makes for a good balance for us. I get most of my work for class done while we are on campus and then when we go home I can do what I need to while Bryce is doing homework. My goal is to make his life easier and I think that could easily be accomplished! Yay for school!

85 days till graduation!!!

Vivi Reborn GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

2009-10-23T15:13:00.000-06:00

Another jewelry giveaway! Everyone please go check it out and see how B-E-A-utiful they are!! LOVE LOVE LOVE THEM!!!

Vivi Reborn GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

Yellow Finch Designs GIVEAWAY!!!!

2009-10-23T15:11:00.000-06:00

You all have to go check out this blog!! There are SO many cute pieces of jewelry that you can win, just by blogging!

Yellow Finch Designs GIVEAWAY!!!!

2 weeks!

2009-07-10T11:04:00.001-06:00

In exactly 2 weeks from today Bryce and I will be driving back to Washington for the fall. This semester has gone by very quickly and I'm excited for it to be done.

One thing that I am especially excited for is my brother Nathan's wedding! I love Brooke to death and I am so happy for them that the day is almost here... I can't even imagine what I would have done if Bryce and I would have had a longer engagement... you two are troopers!

Another thing I am excited about is being able to help my mom start her business. This is what my internship will be, and good reason because it is going to be an incredible amount of work! It's going to be so much fun to help her.

I am hoping that when I am home I am going to be able to see my Camp Seymour buddies.... You know who you are!!! :D

I am so excited to go home, and when we come back to Rexburg for Winter semester I will have 2 classes left and then I will graduate... April 2010!!!! I am so excited to be done and to work. Its gone by so fast, this college thing... But it has been an amazing experience and A LOT of work. I cant even think of how many hours I have put into getting a piece of paper... But it means a lot to me.

Um.... Why?

2009-06-24T19:37:00.000-06:00

I must admit that I am obsessed with WWII. I can't really explain why. I am fascinated with reading both non-fiction and fiction books and I like to watch some (that's right I repeat some) movies or shows about the war.

Last November a movie came out called "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas." The title was intriguing to me so I looked it up on the Internet. I found out that it was a fictional Holocaust movie that was based on a book written by John Boyne. Being a firm believer in reading books before watching movies, I read the book. I am not quite sure about what to report about the book/movie, however. I was very thoroughly enjoying the story of 9-year-old Bruno and his family. His father became a commandant in Hitler's Army and was placed as the man over "Out-With" (as Bruno calls it because he does not understand everyone saying "Auschwitz".) Bruno soon begins to explore the woods around the house and meets a boy named Shmul who lives on the other side of the fence and wears striped pajamas all day. I loved Bruno's naive look on what was going on over on the other side, the author says at the end of the book that he took this perspective because:

"It's presumptuous to assume that from today's perspective one can truly understand the horrors of the concentration camps... I believed that the only respectful way for me to deal with this subject was through the eyes of a child, and particularly through the eyes of a rather naive child who couldn't possible understand the terrible things that were taking place around him. After all, only the victims and survivors can truly comprehend the awfulness of that time and place; the rest of us live on the other side of the fence, staring through from our own comfortable place, trying in our own clumsy ways to make sense of it all."

Boyne is amazing at bringing in the metaphor of fences, indeed the last few sentences of the books state his opinion in a very sarcastic manner:

"And that's the end of the story about Bruno and his family. Of course all this happened a long time ago and nothing like that could ever happen again.
Not in this day and age."

The book has a very powerful message. You may be wondering at this point why I bring this all up.... I do not like the ending of this book. I am not one that likes either happy endings or ironic unexpected endings, I tend to respect and like both of them for the author's opinion of the end of the story... I recently had a rude awakening with the end of another story I did not expect... The Giver has sequels, in case you didn't know... odd... but I respected Lois Lowry's opinion of the story. I can not say the same for Boyne. The ending was not expected, however, it did change my perspective on things. I would recommend this book to anyone. The movie.... well you can watch it. As usual the movie is very different from the book, but seeing a lot of this played out on the screen made the ending worse for me.

What we have been up to...

2009-05-26T14:09:00.000-06:00

Yellowstone:

On Memorial Day we went to Yellowstone with my brother and his fiance and Michael Killion. It was a long day, but we had so much fun!! You can see more pictures on our facebook profiles (Bryce put up all of our pictures and Brooke, my brother's fiance, put up a lot of good/silly ones of us as well)

This picture was taken from our car... We had some road blocks in the form of bison! It was fun because they had there new babies with them!

This is indeed the reason why it is called Yellowstone! It was an amazing canyon. Bryce had some issues with how high it was... and I wasn't helping out at all (I kept getting really close to the edge.. he didn't really like that, so I stopped)

This was a really cool geyser that was SO yellow! It was beautiful.

We are standing in front of a mud pot. NO matter how many times I go to Yellowstone, I am always amazed at the crazy things that the Earth does here!

Us by another amazing feature of Yellowstone.... Old Faithful! It is so much fun to watch it because you always see the excitement in the people's faces who have never seen it before... The ooos and awws are very apparent!

What we have been up to...

2009-05-26T13:15:00.000-06:00

Honeymoon:

We went to Ocean Shores, WA for our honeymoon.. and it was an interesting experience to say the least. We had SO much fun, but things just kept happening. About half an hour after we left the reception, we were backing out of the Merrill's driveway and Bryce hit Grandma Joan's car. It smashed the back passenger's side of her car, and the front drivers side of the Merrill's car. Bryce was a little upset, it was no way to start our week. But after talking to his dad and knowing that everything would be OK, we happily moved on and drove to Ocean shores.

Sunday: we were trying to find the branch's building to go to church, and we could NOT find it! We were looking right at the map of where it was supposed to be, and in its place was a pest control center. So we went to a place near the jetty and read scriptures together and talked about Easter. By the time we had finished, and were bored... it was about 1 o'clock and we technically weren't supposed to check into the condo until 4. I suggested that we go and see if there was any way we could check in early, and lucky for us, our room had been cleaned early and they let us check in! That night we watched the sunset from the freezing beach and decided to watch it from our room other nights. View from our room... Sadly taken on a yucky day not when it was sunny:

Monday: we bought Bryce a bathing suit (with out trying it on) and brought it home. There was a hot tub across from our room and we really wanted to go in.... the bathing suit was too small... but Bryce still wore it.

Tuesday: We went shopping and decided to go drive on the beach. We weren't sure where the closest exit was to where we were staying, and missed the closest one and tried to drive out near the jetty, where the sand happens to be the loosest. Needless to say, we got stuck, and we had to use some of our money to pay a tow truck to get us out.

Wednesday: I was cooking breakfast when I hear Bryce call from the bathroom doorway "Honey, whats going on here?" I went to go check what he was talking about and found a rainstorm occurring in our entry way. I called to the office and they said that the room above us was having a leak and that someone would be up to help us. While we were eating, a hoard of housekeeping people came in to wipe up the mess (the rain had ceased by this point because they shut off the water.) About an hour later, we got a call saying they would have to move us to a different building so they could dry out our room. So we were moved to an amazing condo just around the corner. The condo... We were in the part of the house on the right. We had our own garage and it was 2 stories! Definitely a step up from the last place we stayed:

Thursday: This was our day to shop for a souvenir. We went to a couple of shops that had tons of tacky things, so we settled on matching shirts (hehehe) and a pirates treasure map in a little bottle. Well, while driving home I spotted a different store that looked a little better. This shop was were we found those little laser carved glass things, for lack of a better word, that sit on a light and glow different colors. It was really cool looking and Bryce was SO excited about it. Once we got home, I was looking at the glass and saw two stickers on them. I put it under water so they would come off without leaving sticky-ness. Our theory of what heppend is that the water got too hot, and the outcome was the glass cracked. It didn't break, but cracked. I was VERY upset about this. Bryce was so excited and I came right home and broke what he liked. But he was ok becuase we would just go buy another one tomorrow.

Friday: We got up early to head home, and therefore non of the shops were open. So we left a little bummed. On the way back we took a wrong turn and ended up going home a different way than we wanted. This is where all the fun ended.... with a speeding ticket. Both of us were just about done with the "fun mishapps." But we made it home safe!

We had SO much fun on our honeymoon, and we have a fun story, but some bummer things had to happen for the sake of the story. :D

Here are some other pictures from the trip:

Yay for timers! We had a lot of fun trying to get the picture just right.

Bryce.... Exploring I think :D

OH NO!!! HE FELL!! Not really, actually... he wanted to take a fake one.. I took one too, but it was a lot less dramatic looking.

Me and my pet! When we lived in San Diego I used to carry these around the beach all the time and say they were my pets.

This was my exporing picture. I was just messing around with it in Photoshop when I was bored on day.

Photography Blog

2009-05-13T20:26:00.000-06:00

For my custom images class (a photography and Photoshop class) we had to make photography blogs to post our weekly assignments. You can find my blog using the following link:

http://jmerrillcustomimages.wordpress.com/

Let me know what you think!

I'm sorry I have been a slacker and not posted anything more about Bryce and me .... I will get to that asap!

Its been a while!

2009-04-24T14:17:00.000-06:00

Well I feel quite silly for not writing on here recently, things have been quite busy! Bryce and I are just getting settled in our place and with our new school schedules. This is going to be a fun semester!

We had a really fun time on our honeymoon and I will put up pictures and the lovely story probably this weekend. We had an..... interesting time on our honeymoon to say the least. But that story is to come!

There is a picture up on our amazing photographer's blog, a little preview of sorts, from our wedding day! Check it out at http://www.mbaddasphotos.blogspot.com/ I cant wait to see the rest of them! It was the most wonderful day of my life and I am so happy to be able to be married to Bryce. He is my best friend and an amazing person. I am so grateful to be with him everyday and to be able to spend our lives and eternity together!

My Web Site

2009-04-02T11:57:00.000-06:00

For my Advanced Visual Media class we had to make a website to display projects... its pretty much my e-portfolio. I had a lot of fun with it and still want to change some things about it... well a lot of things. I keep getting new design ideas and I can't ever just pick one. If you want to check it out.... Here is the link:

Jamie's Bliss

Just a little disclaimer: If you have a slow connection, some of the videos might take a little time to load... and some of the links will look funny before your computer loads them. Its funny how you can make images/videos EXTREMELY small and yet some internet connections still have trouble with it. I hope you like it!

Big Love

2009-03-12T19:08:00.000-06:00

Well... by now, most of us have heard about the episode of Big Love. I have heard about people saying it is not true and others saying it is true, but either way, I just wanted to put up on here what the church has said about it and the video about temples that the church has put out as well.

I was just recently able to attend the temple for the first time and I am so grateful for the blessing that it has been in my life. The temple is an amazing place where we can find peace and perspective in our lives. It has brought such new understanding and joy into my life!

I am sad that there are those who are trying to make light of the sacred things that go on in our lovely temples.

A video about temples:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-x_-TQivCx8

The Church's Statement on Big Love:

http://newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/commentary/the-publicity-dilemma

33 Days!!!

2009-03-09T10:02:00.000-06:00

Well... I haven't Written in a while, so I decided to update this. I am getting married in 33 days! Which is very exciting... And the sad part is we are just now sending out invitations, but things have been crazy and lucky for us the U.S. Postal Service does a great job! hahaha... We have just about everything worked out now, and I have my fitting for my dress on Tuesday that I am very excited about.

Here is our invitation!

ENGAGED!!!

2009-02-07T23:47:00.000-07:00

These are just some of our engagement pictures and pictures of my ring! :D

Who would have thought?

2008-12-06T15:13:00.000-07:00

I'm in a social dance class here at school, and we had to participate in a dance competition today. I danced the waltz with a partner from my class and we got first place! It was a very odd experience, they kept calling our number for the next round, and then we were in the finals and they were not calling out our number. I was in total shock! I haven't won a competition in my life, and I was stunned to win this one. Here are some pictures that my sister took... they are a little blurry, but fun... they are action shots :D one funny little tid bit, the guy that I danced with has red hair as well and we were both wearing shiny shoes... my roommate kept pointing out how our tops and feet matched. But he is an AMAZING dancer and the only reason we won today! Thanks Kevin!!!

Ah the Joys of Rexburg!

2008-11-30T00:07:00.000-07:00

So... I've been going to school here in Rexburg for just over a year and will be done in a year. But it has been a wonderful semester so far. I got my clusters approved (for all of you non BYU-Idahoans, clusters are like having 2 half minors) a couple of weeks ago so I am right on schedule to graduate December of 2009 and I am thrilled! Now I just have to make sure that I pass all of my classes. I'm studying communications with my emphasis in Public Relations and I want to either go into events planning or graphic design. I have been doing some publicity for dances on campus and I have loved doing that and would love to do something similar to it as a career. These are the posters I have made this semester:

I have a new love for three Adobe programs; Indesign, Illustrator, and Photoshop. Its an odd obsession I have with them, I use them for almost every assignment I have, but they make everything so aesthetically pleasing and I love it! .

For all of you who have lived in Rexburg, Idaho you know of the joyful cold that does not slowly approach every year. This year has been a shock to everyone because we have yet to retain snow so far. It has snowed at least 2 times, but it never sticks, and everyone is shocked. I, however, am not (And I have no reason to complain either.) There is a beautifully large auditorium on campus that still needs its outside finished, hence, no snow. Thanks President Clark!

Another exciting Rexburg phenomenon is vacation time. This past week we did not have school at all, due to Thanksgiving, and this place became a ghost town. There were still quite a few people here, but the students make up half the population of Rexburg, and when they all go home, its a little odd. I stayed here to have dinner with my sister and her family, and my brother and his fiance. It was a lot of fun, and kind of nice to not be surrounded by students all the time. And there were no awkward Porter Park moments, as many of us have witnessed. The most exciting things that happened this week were going to the hospital with my brother-in-law and sister (not too exciting of a reason, so not much to report there), getting my hair fixed for 3 hours, black friday, and twilight.

Getting my hair fixed was an interesting task. A couple of weeks ago, I decided to do something to my hair because it was bothering me, however, the measures ended up being a lot more drastic than I preferred, and so my sister's neighbor (who works at Trade Secret) offered her services. The best part of the whole process was the foils that made me look like I had a mohawk, as seen below:

And after 3 hours in the chair, my hair is back to a more natural look. There are some remains of the first experiment, it is a lot less noticeable. I am very attached to my hair and I know it was silly to change it in the first place, but we are allowed to make silly mistakes every once and a while right?

Black Friday: a day when crazy women, and even crazier men wake up extremely early in order to hit the "biggest sales of the season." Most stores now opening as early as 4 am! This has always been an amazing thing to observe, the rush, the lines, the hundreds of people spending hundreds of money all before 10 am in order to spend the least amount of money for presents. My sister and 2 of her friends went to Idaho Falls this past friday to partake in this lovely event. We arrived at about 5:30 or so, and there was no parking almost everywhere we went! The first place we went was Kohls... which had a line to check out that almost completely wrapped around the whole store, needless to say, we didn't even really look to buy anything there. Then we went to the mall, which wasn't as bad. Target was insane, but the lines weren't long, which was nice. When we had driven past Wal-Mart the first time there was no parking, and when we went to shop there, almost everyone was gone. We were lucky to not get caught in too many places with too many people. The best part of the day was when we went to Winco. My sister and I had to pick up one thing each and there was probably a total of 10 cars in the whole lot, since everyone had eaten the day before!

Last but not least was Twilight. I read the first two books in the series during the break and saw the movie on Thanksgiving. They are definitely placed in the Young adult literature section for a reason, but I found them every intriguing and I am excited to read the last 2 books. I liked the movie as a representation of the books, but never to be the same. The funny part was the movie made me miss home a lot, the green.... oh how I miss the green. Only 2 more weeks and school will be done for the semester and I will be home.

I hope everyone had a wonderful thanksgiving! And I'm sorry that this post is more like a novel, but I was my first... so I have some leeway I suppose.