a note to my boo, blue :)

my baby girl,

a few days ago you turned 17 months old. you are officially old-er. not a little baby anymore. i miss those days when you would let me hold and snuggle you all i wanted. now you are far too busy and have more important things to do (like tearing the house apart). you are getting some new teeth so you haven't been feeling too peppy lately and the other day you actually fell asleep in my arms! it was a miracle and i just held you and held you and held you while you slept. i had to take a picture because i wanted to have proof of the special treat you gave me. you are a really good napper and sometimes will sleep up to 3 hours! i don't really like when you sleep that long because i start to get lonely missing my sidekick. you always wake up happy and point to your books right when i go in to get you. you love to be read to. you're also getting more hair (yay!) and have been waking up with the most incredible bed head. your little bum fluff head makes me laugh so hard. maybe it's from sleeping like a weirdo?!

  

your favorite show (and basically the only show you'll watch) is meerkat manor. you get SO excited when it comes on, running around hoopin' and hollerin' all maniac like. i'm afraid you're going to ask for one when you get older. your daddy took this picture of you the other day when i was at work. guess what you were watching? 

i love that you get to spend every friday with your daddy when i'm working. he usually takes you on a run, which you love, and then you go to the park and swing. you love to swing and get mad when it's time to leave.  on your way home before nap you come to visit me at work. sometimes you bring me a fountain drink and i usually let you have a sip or two. you love soda, or "doda" as you call it. you rarely get to have any so it's a special treat. seeing you is my favorite part of the day. 

you also have a new favorite game. it's called "chase the dogs and try to run them over with the baby doll stroller." you laugh laugh laugh and think you are so funny. and well, you are...lucky for them they are fast movers and usually manage to escape.

here are a few more pictures from the last bits of our summer...

enjoying the last bits of summer

baby bandit strikes again
*we'll work on sitting like a lady when you get a little older

this is how you "hug" the puppies

you still make everyone who comes over push you around in this stroller. piper was no exception.

i love {whatcha been up to}

oh my little baby bluebird...i haven't written in your blog (well, technically it is supposed to be a blog about our whole little family but somehow it's become mostly about you-wonder why?) very much at all this summer. we've been having too much fun. and now that we aren't having fun anymore i will have more time to write to, and about you, so when you are all grown up you will have documentation of  what a little weirdo you were as a baby. i have so many favorite things about you but i would have to say that your goofiness and absolutely cheery disposition are two of the things i love most.

the most exciting thing that happened this summer is that you started WALKING! finally. although, your pirate/chimpanzee hop-crawl was singlehandedly the kookiest thing i, along with everyone else, have ever witnessed a baby do. on august 3rd you really took off and since then you have been running everywhere.

so, you seem to be turning into more and more of a toddler these past few weeks. and a maniac. i mean, hilariously funny and full of spunk and energy. tonight we went to meet daddy at his new office. i love that the new office is closer to our house so we can go visit him more often. you love to run into his office and go nuts. you have developed a close knit relationship with the water dispenser and the blinds. sometimes you have a hard time deciding which to attack first. after you've spent some time destroying these things, you make your way to the magazines on the coffee table. one by one they are thrown onto the floor. you also play this violent tossing game with daddy and dj's business cards. daddy is having a nice, big desk built so all the things you love to get into trouble with will not be as easily accessible . i'm sorry to break it to you this way. i think you love going to daddy's office because of all the people you get to see. i love how friendly you are, waving and saying hi to everyone that passes by. i get compliments on a daily basis on what a cute baby i have. i'm one lucky mama. after we left daddy's office we needed to get something to eat so we decided on dick's kitchen. it was great weather so we decided to sit outside. a group of ladies came and sat on the picnic table next to us and one of them had a big doggie and that just made your whole day. you two got to know each other real quick and you are so good at sharing that you gave him pretty much ALL of your dinner. we tried to stop you but you are so generous, you couldn't help your little self. you were sad to say goodbye to bentley when it was time to go but you are a lucky girl because you have two puppies at home all of your own.

i hope bentley enjoyed the $5 grilled cheese you fed him

my favorite time of the day is when i go into your room when you wake up in the morning. you always wake up happy and the first thing you do is point to your books because you love when i read to you. you also like to read books to yourself and it's the cutest little thing to hear you babble while turning the pages. you love to read while sitting in your chair. you have a really weird obsession with little chairs. i think you feel special because they are just your size. you also love to sit outside with the doggies and watch people walk by, waving and saying hi to everyone. you are very good at being friendly.  know what else you're really good at? dancing. girl, you have some rhythm and i totally can see you shaking your booty in hip hop class someday. we have a spontaneous dance party everyday and you are by far my favorite person ever to dance with. since you aren't old enough for nursery you get to come help me teach my sunday school class at church. as soon as sacrament meeting is over you take off and go right into the classroom. you are so smart! you love all the kids and especially love to rummage through their bags to find treasures. you always fold your arms for prayer and we didn't even teach you how. little copycat :) you are so much fun to hang out with and fill my life with so much happiness and sunshine. you probably get sick of me hugging and kissing you all the time. in fact, sometimes you resort to violence by pushing me out of the way when you've had enough of me smooching that cute face. you are very picky about who you give hugs and kisses to. you hardly ever hug or kiss me or your daddy, except sometimes at night you will give me a great big fishy kiss. those are my favorite. however, you really LOVE to give your puppies hugs and you are always up for giving baby dolls and your toy horse rody big ol' mouth kisses. to that i say, what the what?! how can i be jealous of an ugly plastic horse? today i bought you some hello kitty stickers for your church bag and you basically made out with them the whole way home. again i say, how can i be jealous of a kittty? not sure but i am  :)  i have heard that this will change once you get a little older and wiser.

i love you bluebird!

she couldn't be happier than just chillin' in her chair watching people and doggies walk by.

who needs a baby doll when you have a baby ball?

she loves hats

my bluebird outside with her bluebird
*and tucker

i never knew she had a favorite blanket. until the day i decided to wash it. 

she could swing the day away

someone (ahem...daddy)left the package of baby wipes too close to her bed. when she woke up from her nap she decided to take all of them out of the bag (large sized bag, mind you) and put them in a pile in her crib. when we walked in and caught her red handed she quickly picked one up and started cleaning her crib with it. classic.

dizzy, not drugged. she was holding on for dear life all on her own and would get upset every time her daddy stopped spinning her. so he just kept going. she loved it.
*and don't mind the outfit. it was a lazy sunday, what can i say?

big girl at church

helping daddy "unpack" at his new office. she got hungry from working so hard. 

pretty sure this will haunt her in her later years. and make me pee my pants every time i look at it. 

every morning when i make a protein shake i have to share with her. she takes about  5 seconds to finish it.

desperately trying to get some "doda" out

one of her favorite things to do is play in the fridge. she sat here with her new shoes and ball and watched me make dinner.
 *this is totally saving energy, don't worry

{love} summer in nevada

sutton with grandpa and great-grandpa

we have been home from nevada for almost two weeks now and i'm incredibly homesick. boo. there is just something about being at home that is so relaxing, fun, peaceful...i love summers in nevada. i can't get enough of the sweet smell of the alfalfa that grows all around my parents house. i don't think i ever truly appreciated it when i was growing up. to me, fresh cut alfalfa is the best smell in the world. i'm pretty sure that sutton is equally as homesick for her grammie's house. i really think i only held her a handful of times during the 10 days we were at home and that is not an exaggeration. she LOVED being at grammie's. she had so much fun playing with her uncles and cousins, seeing the animals on the farm, going into town to the swimming pool and eating lots of treats courtesy of grammie. i'm so happy that she finally got to meet her uncle markie. sutton took to him right away and it was nice to always have a babysitter on hand when i needed to run an errand, take a nap or go for a run. john really missed us while we were gone so he decided to drive from oregon to visit for a few days and brought jaxson and tucker with him. mark didn't know that john was coming (i like to scare the crap out of people, what's wrong with that?) so we totally set him up. i was upstairs with mark and ethan when john finally got there so my mom let him inside and he snuck into the downstairs bathroom to wait. in the dark.  i told mark to hurry and go get the nose trimmers that were in the downstairs bathroom (so i could help him with this grooming) and when he opened the door and reached to turn on the light he felt a body. john's. he screamed like a little girl and i'm pretty sure he peed his pants. i think it had to be one of the best scares ever. anyway, mark was so excited to see john, tucker and jax. we had a great time being all together as a family. can we go back already???

anyone that knows me knows that i love to take pictures so here ya go...a document of our vacation, photo style :)

Look at this cute boy snack hunting. Ladies, he is available!

swim time with uncle markie!

char and sutton blue just kickin' it (and now i have SWV stuck in my head)

ethan cried because he didn't want to go to the pool that day but sutton forced him to. he reluctantly ended up having fun. 

this picture captures exactly how i feel when i eat anything my mom cooks. sutton was clearly enjoying the hot, fresh crescent rolls that grammie made. she was in food heaven. 

these babes sure love their uncle markie!

do these glasses make my head look big?

so, blue is OBSESSED with blueberries and could easily eat 2 pints in one sitting if i let her. earlier in the day we were taking a nap and i woke up to a stinky room, looked down in the pack-n-play and saw a passed out baby who had finger painted herself with.....blueberry poo. it was like poo play-dough in her hair, feet, blankie, binky...(you get the picture) everywhere. so gross. two baths later with lots of soap and lotion this babe was finally smoochable again.

best buds

sutton loves her cousin sitini. well, mainly because she was using him to get to all the treats at great-grandma's during game night. and yes, she IS wearing an arm floatie which she found AND put on all by herself. 

sutton was "reading" to uncle markie. that girl loves books. 

i have loved the name sutton since i first heard it 12 years so i was super stoked when i saw that virginia city named a street after my baby girl!

just me and that guy :)

me, mark and isaac in front of the silver queen in virginia city. she is in the guinness book of world records and ghost hunters has been here a few times. and yes, they caught some really scary stuff on camera. like scream and pee your pants scary. so we thought it would be a good idea to all go on a ghost tour and see what all the hype was about. 

this place is so beautiful! 

this little guy was out of order. good for him, bad for us. 

can you see my twin? i was so happy he was able to make it on the ghost tour with us.

what you see here is an original, authentic orb (see bottom left hand corner)  outside of the mackay mansion in virginia city, nv.  (insert creepy music here)

me and my friend again. john was getting jealous so he had to be in the picture too. 

inside the crypt in the washoe club. this is where they used to keep the dead bodies during the winter when the ground was too frozen to dig graves. can you say creeeeepy???? 

i thought i'd get a few more pictures for good measure. i mean c'mon...how did he know that denim on denim was back?! only my favorite fashion trend from my college days!

i couldn't get him to turn around for the life of me. it was very frustrating because i know we could have taken some beautiful pictures together. 

i procrastinated going on a run until 10:00 am. bad, bad idea katie. i was forced to call in the water rangers. no literally, they were driving a ranger :) i almost died of dehydration/heatstroke so therefore, i learned my lesson. the hard way.

some babies and a teo bug

isaac and teo. i especially like teo's choice of "running" shoes. 

apparently this was the "millionaires club"...

back yard games

emmery loved tuck and jax

i love this little girl

 three hours of church put teo in a coma. 

this picture melts my heart. 

i freaking love my family. nuff said.