farmer’s market

A couple of weeks ago we decided to hit up the Downtown 3rd Farmer’s Market on a Friday morning. I was interested in checking it out since the last one we visited left us unimpressed. Of course, we were comparing the market to the ones we visited in NYC and it just couldn’t stack up. But then again, we live in the middle of the desert so what was I expecting?

This market was better. And I loved all the vendors there selling honey and homemade soap and delicious bread. There WAS some fresh fruit and vegetables, not as much as a NYC market, but some. It was a really nice morning visit and we enjoyed some treats from market vendors as well as some food trucks outside.

Addie was so good and stayed in her stroller the whole time. Maybe because we kept giving her treats. She really enjoyed the blue grass band that was playing outside while we ate lunch.

Can we just talk about Addie’s sandals for a minute? I mean seriously. I love them so, so, so much. And she needs them in red.

Addie loves them too. She took them in the bathtub the other day!

Posted in Vegas | 4 Comments

adelaide at 2

I’ve been postponing finishing this post because I felt like there was no way I could really capture Adelaide’s spunky little personality in a post. But here’s my best attempt at describing our sweet Adelaide at two years old (and one month.)

The photos in this post were taken a couple weeks ago by my incredibly talented friend Marci. I absolutely adore them. I feel like she accurately captured what Addie is like right now.

- Addie doesn’t say “yes.” If you ask her a question and her answer is yes, she claps her hands and cries, “Yay!!”
- Our girl still loves Sesame Street. She calls it, “Ses” and her favorite characters are “Gro” and “Ehwo!”
- Her favorite word is, “No!” She even says it when she’s playing by herself. She’s just got to keep everyone (including her toys) in line.
- She still sleeps in a sleep sack because 1- she likes it 2- it keeps her warm and 3- it deters her from climbing out of her crib. She can unzip it though and sometimes takes it off and throws it out of her crib. This morning I woke up to her screaming in her crib. I went in to discover she’d thrown her sleep sack out of the crib but the binky was attached to it and she needed her, “bee!”
- Yes, she still loves her binkies. We try to restrict it to sleeping and sometimes in the car or church. She gets SO excited when she gets one. If we take it away and she still wants it she cries and cries for, “bee, bee, bee!”
- Her favorite game ever is pretending to sleep. She does it EVERYWHERE. The game consists of her finding some kind of fabric to “seep” under. She lays down, pulls the blanket (or towel or rug or scarf…) on top of her and pretends to snore. Then she yells, “Wake!” and sits up. She also tells everybody nearby that they need to, “seep!” too. She could play this game for ages and does it several times a day. Yesterday she did it in Gymboree class with her carpet square.

- She knows almost all her capital letters and some of the lowercase letters. We had no idea she knew them until a couple months ago when she started pointing them out! Now she can find any of the capital letters if we ask her to and she usually identifies them correctly by name. She has a Melissa and Doug alphabet puzzle that she puts back together by herself. She loves the alphabet song and sings it to herself all the time. But she sings it differently every time. “A b dee cee….. lllll mnnnooo PPP… tttt uuu vvv….” but always gets the ending, “Y and Zzzzzzzz. Now I know myyyy…” and then it usually turns to jibberish. I’m still so surprised she can do this. I never made any real attempt to teach her the letters. I think she picked it up from books, Sesame Street, and the foam letters in the bath tub.
- She also knows most of the numbers 1-10 but gets mixed up sometimes. My favorite is 3 which she pronounces as “fee.”
- She still doesn’t love it when I brush her teeth but she LOVES to do it herself. She signs and says, “Teef!” a couple times a day and I always let her do it. She’s not as thorough with the brushing as I’d like though. :)
- She loves music. She keeps a pretty good beat and loves instruments. She breaks into dance any time she hears a beat and tries to sing a long. I hear her singing all the time. It’s usually the alphabet song or sometimes I can identify a song from Gymboree. She loves the wheels on the bus, especially the Mama verse. She sings, “Mamas…. shhh shhh shhh….ahhhhh ooooohhh tow” (all over town.) She picks up new songs easily. I swear the other day I heard her singing Gotye’s “Somebody That I Used to Know” after I’d had it on.
- She gets overwhelmed by too much chaos. She doesn’t like when we’re in a large, loud group of kids. She tends to hang back when we go to a new Gymboree class until she’s used to the routine and the people. Even still, she often doesn’t want to do what the other kids are doing.
- She loves to jump and spin in circles. She’s pretty crazy. She still climbs on EVERYTHING. Now that it’s shorts weather her knees are getting covered in scrapes and bruises.

- She used to vehemently despise the swing but now it’s her favorite thing ever. She asks to, “wing!” as soon as we get the park and often will stay in there for ages, as long as we’re willing to push her!
- She still gives kisses although she’s more stingy about it now. But she loves to get Jacob and I to kiss and then she giggles and giggles. If we’re all sitting close enough she’ll grab one of our faces and push it towards the other one. It’s pretty funny.
- She makes an awesome growling noise for a lot of animals (dog, lion, bear) but also does it sometimes just to be funny. She’ll run into a room I’m in and growl, then run back out laughing.
- She loves pouring water from a water bottle or cup into something else. She does it in the bathtub all the time (and usually ends up pouring it outside of the tub too.) If she gets her hands on my water bottle I’ll usually end up with a big puddle on the carpet.
- She loves bubbles and asks for them all the time. The funny part is it doesn’t make her run around like crazy, popping all the bubbles. Instead she usually watches it pretty quietly and only pops the ones that come near her. She recently learned how to blow bubbles using our Gymboree bubble pipe and she is so proud of herself when she does it.

- She really chatters all day long and I know she says more than we realize. She was saying, “ihhss tuuuck” for ages before my sister pointed out she was saying, “It’s stuck.” And she says that at least 10 times a day- when she can’t get the chair out at her table, when she can’t get the cap off my water bottle, when she can’t get a sticker off the sheet, etc. It makes me wonder what other things she says that we don’t notice. The only other 2 word phrases I’ve noticed recently are, “Owww dere” (out there) and “Daddy no” (hahaha). I know she probably has said some more. But her vocabulary is definitely expanding like crazy. She mimics almost everything I say.
- Her favorite gibberish phrase is, “ha-bee-day” and she goes around saying it in a sing-song voice. We have absolutely no idea what she’s saying.

- She takes a bath every night and usually loves it unless she’s getting a scrub down or her hair washed. She loves to drink water out of the faucet (or the bath water, yuck) and laying down to “swim.”
- She’s shy when we’re around new people, especially if they try and engage her. She usually covers her face and tries to hide when someone says hi to her at the grocery store. The other day our neighbor was standing at the edge of his patio (smoking) right by our door when we got home. When she noticed him she covered her face with both hands and then stumbled all the way inside with her face still covered. I had to laugh! She doesn’t like being the center of attention, like when we sang happy birthday at her party.
- When she gets comfortable with a new person, she warms right up to them. She hopped right up in our doctor’s lap at her appointment the other day. We had some people from church visiting a few days ago and she sat with them and showed them her books. She’s done really well with babysitters recently.
- She’s crazy about Jacob. She runs super speed to the gate when he gets home. They are so sweet (and silly) together.
- She loves to color. She’s always getting hold of a pen, marker, crayon, and colored pencil. She’s definitely done some damage to walls and furniture already. And she’s still crazy for stickers. It’s one of the best quiet activities for church but I have to watch that she doesn’t stick them to the floor or chairs! I always find stickers around the house (and sometimes on my clothes.)

- She loves “Gra” (Grandma and Grandpa) and sometimes asks for them when she’s playing for the ipad. She even knows how to open FaceTime so we can call them. But her attention span for video chatting is very short! She always blows them kisses though.
- She loves books and whenever we have a new visitor she brings them every book from her shelf. She hasn’t had the attention span for very long books but is starting to be more interested. My parents got her the, “Duckling Gets a Cookie” book for Easter and she LOVES it. She thinks it’s so funny. After a week of reading it she started pulling it out and reading it to herself while she turned the pages, “Oh no! Cookie! Why why why??? Nom nom nom.” It kills me.

- She still isn’t very interested in eating. She loves to drink (milk, watered down juice, or water.) She sometimes will eat yogurt pouches or fruit pouches. She loves cheese, pizza, pasta, macaroni and cheese, cheddar bunnies, and tortilla chips (“kips!”). She will definitely eat other things but it’s hit and miss. Usually it’s not so much about what she will eat but whether or not she will eat at all. She doesn’t get many sweets and honestly doesn’t care that much about them when she does. Her only real treat love is m&ms, which she hoards in her fists and makes a big mess.
- I don’t think she’s ready for potty training because she needs to get more verbal first. But she has started telling me sometimes when she has a poopy diaper.
- She loves shoes and takes them on and off all day. Usually two different shoes, both on the wrong feet.
- She loves her babies and always has a couple in her crib. She isn’t too interested yet in dressing and undressing them but does it occasionally.
- She likes to play dress up herself and put clothes on, or at least she attempts to. She puts on our shoes and tries to walk around. She asks to put on her fairy wings. She loves “pretties” (bracelets or necklaces) but insists on being able to take them on and off herself so I have to make sure they don’t have clasps. Sometimes “pretties” refers to my chapstick (which she usually dabs on her cheeks) or makeup (she takes a brush and pats her face.)

- She likes to play with older little girls at the park. She follows them around and is happy as can be when they’re around. She loves to hold hands and give hugs. It’s not uncommon for her to make friends with a little girl we don’t know and walk around the park holding hands with her.
- She’s tall and skinny. 90% for height, 85% for head (ha!) and 30% for weight. She never has much problem outgrowing her clothes in size, they just get too short. She had a pretty big growth spurt between 18-24 months.

Addie is such a ham but also a sweetheart. We just adore her and our lives are so much fuller because of her. We can’t wait to see what new things she will be doing every day!

And let’s just take a look at how far she’s come (and how much hair she has!!)


(first photo by Melynda, second by me, third by Marci.)

Posted in Adelaide | 18 Comments

favorite things party

We are just a couple weeks away from graduation and all of my med school girlfriends are starting to go their separate ways. But we were able to squeeze in one last girls night. We had to hold it at 9 PM on a Monday night because that was literally the only time all 10 of us would be in town/not at work the whole month. We moved the date around several times before finding this time that worked for everyone. Because of all the changes, I didn’t have as much time to put into the party as I’d have liked. There wasn’t really much in the way of decorations. But by golly there was food, and it was good.


the favorite things + the girls

Menu: (at the request of my mom and aunt)
- milk, chocolate milk, and sparkling clementine juice from TJ’s
- quiche (store bought)
- muffins (from Melanie)
- yogurt parfaits (frozen fruit, Trader Joe’s vanilla yogurt, granola) with spoon attached with washi tape (a la armelle)
- apples and caramel dip (from TJ’s)
- donut holes made with cake pop maker: sour cream dipped in butter and cinnamon/sugar and chocolate with glazed icing (powdered sugar and milk, dash of vanilla)
- ham & cheese sliders (recipe below)

Ham & Cheese Sliders
modified version of this recipe

12 hawaiian sweet rolls or butter rolls
12 pieces good honey ham
12 small slices swiss cheese (I often only use 6 and put half a slice in each)

sauce
1 1/2 TBSP poppy seeds (I just guess on this)
1 1/2 TBSP yellow mustard
1 stick butter, melted
1/2-1 TBSP minced onion (I guess on this too, just sprinkle it in!)
1 TBSP worschestershire sauce
2 TBSP brown sugar

Assemble the sandwiches. Pour sauce on top. Cover with foil. Cook 12 minutes 350 degrees. Remove foil and cook another 3 minutes.

Our favorite things were:
- Real simple magazine
- washi tape (from Target) – this one was mine, of course!
- a cake decorating tip
- bag balm
- nail polish (x2)
- St. Ives apricot scrub
- homemade salad dressing bottle
- scrapbooking paper
- hair flower

We each brought 5 of our favorite things and went home with 5 new favorite things. The hardest part was that we all wanted one of everything! We drew names and then at the end did some trading.

This was really just an excuse for everyone to get together and it was worth all the hassle to organize it. I will miss these girls more than I can even express. They were so good to me when I moved in- a year later than all of them. They took me right in even though they already had their own friends. They talked me down when my crying baby had me on the edge of sanity. They kept me company at countless playdates. They taught me some of their amazing talents. They inspired me to be a better mother, a better wife, a better person. It’s hard for me to even imagine getting through residency without them. But luckily I will still have their friendship, even if we can’t all go through it together in the same town. I KNOW they were one of the reasons that our Heavenly Father prompted us to move here when we were just getting comfortable in NY (another place full of amazing women I admire and miss.)

Paige, Alisha, Marci, Rachele, Erica, Jamie, Casie, Robyn, Melanie: Thanks for three amazing years. I will miss you so much!

P.S. if you want to see a really darling favorite things party that I would like to copy in the future, check out Shannon’s party!

Posted in Fabulous Friends | 5 Comments

easter

Easter morning. Addie had decided to add a few extra items of clothing to her pajama ensemble and refused to let me take them off. I think it made for extra awesome Easter pics.

She went straight for the only candy in her basket: a tube of mini m&ms.


Our first attempt at the bunny ears pic. She wasn’t having it.


Easter egg hunting. When she would find an egg she would step on it to open it then dump it out in her basket before finding another one. She wasn’t even interested in eating the candy, just wanted the eggs empty.


Before long she caught on to the idea of just collecting the eggs in her basket. But when we were done she went through and dumped them all out.


A successful bunny ears photo! She ripped them off right after this.


Jacob put on the ears to entice her to wear them again. That didn’t work but she LOVED feeding her “little” bunny rabbit.

Somehow we were running late for church so I didn’t get a picture of her Easter dress until after church. (How can one be late to 1 PM church?? I swear it’s harder to get to on time than 9 AM church.) And she didn’t really have any interest in posing. But trust me, the dress is darling. I got it for a steal from Crewcuts and the sandals are her new gold saltwaters that I now pair with almost every one of her outfits.

It was a really lovely Easter and we were grateful for the opportunity to remember the Savior. We know He lives!

Posted in Adelaide | 6 Comments

a sesame street birthday

For Adelaide’s 2nd birthday we had a “conjoined” birthday party for Adelaide with our little friend Beckham, who was turning 2. We had two completely different themes, threw in a build your own picnic lunch, and had an Easter egg hunt as it was the day before Easter. Definitely a hodgepodge! But it turned out really great.

Here’s some proof that Addie was happy at some point during the day because the photos you’re about to see of her will indicate otherwise.

As you can see from the invitations, I was trying to keep the Sesame Street aspect to a minimum. I just didn’t want it to be TOO MUCH. The confetti feeling was something I just ran with. I made the pattern and then used it and the color scheme throughout the rest of the party. The font for everything was Bebas (I’m addicted) and the invite also used Ostrich Sans Rounded.

We had the party at the park which has pros and cons. The major pros is not having to squish a ton of people into our apartment or have a huge mess to clean up. The cons would be not being able to set up very far in advance, having to haul everything to the park, and then forgetting things at home. I bought a white table cloth for my table but it wasn’t long enough and we didn’t take it out of the packaging until right before the party started so it’s majorly creased. But we were at the park so we just had to roll with it.

The little Sesame Street figurines and the Hoopers Store toy are from Target. The vintage Sesame Street Treasury books were an ebay find (steal!) that I’d been on the lookout for. Addie loves them and so do I. I had planned to put the “Happy birthday” onto a banner but simply ran out of time. I actually loved how it looked laid out on the table but it was really hard to photograph. I cut the confetti circles out at the same time as the letters with my Silhouette. The circles the letters of “Adelaide” are on are actually Martha Stewart coasters.

The cake is by my talented friend Robyn. I was delighted with how it turned out. Just what I had envisioned and Addie lit up like a match when she saw it. “Ses!! Gro! Ehhhwooooo!” (The latest pronunciation of Elmo.) Thanks Robyn for your hard work!

For the favors I made the kids each two crayons: their first initial and their age. So Addie’s crayons were A and 2. They were actually pretty easy except for the S that kept sticking in the mold. After reheating it 7 times and saying lots of bad words I decided that Sawyer could get one in the shape of his last initial and the crisis was averted. They also got a sheet of Sesame Street stickers, a small bottle of bubbles, and a playdough container (thank you Target sale.) I just packaged it up in a brown paper sack and stuck on each child’s initial (cut from the silhouette) with some washi tape.

Here’s a peek at Rachele’s table, I’m sure she won’t mind if I share!

Robyn did Beckham’s cake as well. Didn’t it turn out darling? I love the chevron on the letters.

Here was our “build your own picnic lunch” table. We opted to buy pretty much everything, even the pb&j sandwiches, just to cut out a lot of work.

Here are the birthday kids. Addie had about HAD IT by the time I started taking pictures of people so don’t mind her grumpy look throughout the rest of the party.

And our wonderful friends!


I have such a soft spot for Max. In the heart sunglasses I was done for.


Addie really wanted me to quit taking pictures and hold her hand. She had zero interest in the egg hunt.


At least she enjoyed having an Izzie + a straw all to herself. And a bag of chips. She didn’t want any treats. Where did this child come from?

Once we started singing “Happy Birthday” Addie was done with the whole thing.

She wouldn’t have anything to do with posing for pictures with the other kids either.

I’m just grateful we got to do this with all of our awesome friends (minus a few) before we move. We’re lucky to have so many people who love Addie. Going to school with these families has been the greatest blessing.

We sure love our Addie girl and can’t believe she’s TWO. She can’t either. If you ask her how old she is her response is, “NO!” I’ll post more about her actual birthday soon.

Posted in Adelaide, Parties | 9 Comments