The Youngs

Cabin fun

2012-01-03T13:17:00.001-08:00

7 months

2012-01-02T16:38:00.001-08:00

Baby girl is 7 months! At 7 months she....

Has no more docband! Yay! Is a great sleeper. Doesn't mind tummy time and will roll from one side of the room to the other to get to something/someone. Likes to play a game where she rolls over once, stops and looks in our direction with a huge grin, we cheer and she does it again and again, Pretty funny. Babbles, shrieks and smiles all day long. Lately all it takes is us giving her a big grin and she giggles back at us. Super cute. nicknames- kateamus, binkybear, baby bear, Katebug, bug. Wears 6-9 month clothes. loves being outside and food in general. Except mashed green beans and spinach. Which I suppose makes sense due to my previous theory that all food preferences were learned behaviors. Blast me and my pre-parenting assumptions! We love our happy little bear and currently couldn't love parenthood more. Can't wait to see what this next month brings us!

Dolly steamboat

2012-01-01T11:23:00.001-08:00

Every couple of months we go through a cycle that goes like this:

1. I complains to Bj about our lack of fun, spontaneous, thoughtful dates, compare our current activities and dates to ones during our dating days and whine about how consumed with work he is.
2. We resolve to take turns planning fun dates each weekend
3. Bj plans and executes perfect date
4. I crap out and do nothing
5. Repeat

Lovely. This particular date BJ booked a little nighttime steamboat ride that took us around some lake about hour away. Dinner, twinkling lights, a little history from the tour guide and dessert. It was perfectly unique and wonderful, you're a dreamboat beej!

Black Friday

2012-01-01T11:20:00.001-08:00

On black Friday my mom and I ventured to Old Navy where we found mediocre deals, a 2 hour checkout line, and lots and lots of laughter. I stand by my theory that the money saved on black Friday isn't worth the lost sleep, long lines and crowds unless you are getting a big ticket item. Nonetheless it was fun and I will do it again. Next year my torture if choice will be the Chandler mall. Bring it on.

Thanksgiving

2012-01-01T10:22:00.001-08:00

One of my talents in this life is my ability to follow a recipe. It tricks people into thinking I'm a good cook. Soooooooo.......it's pretty awesome. Awesome like all of my other talents. Those annoyingly obvious talents. Of mine. All of them. Every single one. A little overwhelming to think about them all at once. Too many, right? Am I making you feel bad about yourself? Here. You can borrow some of mine:

1. follows a recipe like a champ
2. retains random celebrity facts for freakishly long periods of time

You're welcome.

Moving on. Talent #1 aided me in making a thanksgiving dinner that was quite the crowd pleaser. The left overs were plenty, the company was great and Kate took three 2 hour naps. So much to be thankful for this year. We are healthy and happy and so thankful for it. Life is good. Really, really good.

Oh Utah

2011-11-27T11:58:00.001-08:00

Heathers baby shower was a perfect excuse to go to Utah for a long weekend. I spent a lot of time with the cos sisters, jono, Mandy and z. Loved them, loved the shower-- it was seriously perfection, ashleys got skills! After looking at these pictures you are probably in disbelief that ashley handmade all of those amazing decorations and put everything together in such a perfect way. AND you're most likely overjoyed she is a permanent fixture in your life thus you can forever mooch party planning tips from her. Hey! I was thinking the same thing! There was a small (slightly unnecessary?) hospital trip that involved a new mom and super cute baby. Hhhmmmmm anyway, Heather was the cutest and most hilarious preggers ever. Oh those Coslett girls, I just love them. Even that little blondie Celeste. Turns out she's all grown up and just as wonderful as the first two.

Here comes picture overload.

6 months

2011-11-27T08:55:00.001-08:00

6 months has been fun, lots of new developments in the babe which is oh so exciting for this first time mama. At 6 months Kate sits up like a big girl, says dada... I'm pretty sure there is no word association there but ssshhhh don't tell Bj :-). Obsessed with her dad and flirts with him anytime he is home. Interest in food has gone way up and she needs a thousand bottles a day if I don't feed her real food a few times a day. I'm trying to make the majority of her baby food and so far she hasn't rejected anything but seems to prefer "salty" over "sweet". Super ticklish, especially her collar bone, jaw bone and thighs. Size 2 diapers, 6 month clothes and newborn shoes. Sleeps from about 7-7 and takes 2-3 naps a day. Super smiley. Loves being outside and thinks dogs and feeling dads scruff are hiiiiiiilarious. Loves bath time and books. Pulls herself up on our hands and likes to walk while holding onto us. Shows absolutely no interest in crawling. Loves her toys, exersaucer, water, and eating her toes. Hates cold bottles and being too tired. She's easy going and forgiving to us as newbie parents. Has us wrapped around those baby fingers and we couldn't be happier about it.

Small talk

2011-11-20T19:04:00.001-08:00

Bj outside of Kate's room listening to her say "dada dada dada".

Couldn't contain his happiness and had to go get her out of bed.

Pretty cute. Both of them.

"you're going to be so spoiled and you don't even know it yet"- dada

5 months

2011-11-09T17:34:00.001-08:00

Lets try to remember. At 5 months Kate.......

Sleeps from 8pm-7am, for the most part. Naps are here there and everywhere.... Har har. Has sampled- banana, avocado, butternut squash, peach and rice cereal. Getting much better with solids but doesn't need them regularly. Knows her name. loves being outside. starting to cuddle more. loves toys and books. Reaches out her cute shaky arms to be picked up. Size 2 diapers. Wears 6 month clothes. We are completely obsessed with this little babe.

TOFW weekend

2011-11-09T17:31:00.001-08:00

Time out for women was amazing. If you get the chance, GO! Some of the speakers I could have passed on but the majority did not disappoint and I left feeling uplifted, motivated and happy.

Ash was here for 4 WHOLE days!!!! Aside from TOFW, the weekend was full of junk food, lots of yip yapping, getting to know Kate (ash), finding a great pair of boots (me), and enjoying that familiar comfortableness that comes from spending time with a lifelong BFF.

Can't wait till next year.

Park schmark

2011-11-05T15:43:00.001-07:00

i squashed her

2011-11-03T10:20:00.000-07:00

what happened to my sweet, even tempered, never fuss baby? i ruined her, that's what. in my defense, her helmet made me do it. i'm okay with letting my baby cry. i know sad sad sad, not everyone agrees with it, blah blah blah. if she is tired but doesn't want to go down, since i am the only one in this duo who can asses the sitch, it's up to me to give her what she needs- SLEEP. even if crying is the only way to get her over-tired self there. but this helmet....this damn helmet. yep, i'm turning into my mother and saying wimpy cuss words to show just how mad i am. baby kate will probably laugh at me behind my back as i did to my mom when i was younger......but little does she know im saying the not so wimpy ones in my head. and maybe during nap time. or anytime she is out of earshot. oh and those days i hate my husband. booyah. back to the helmet. since we've had it, if she cries before a nap, i worry it's because the helmet is hurting her. so i go in to check on her and often take her to my bed and lay with her. sometimes naps get passed up completely bc in my bed she is distracted OR if she doesn't fall asleep in her bed, i just go get her up after a while.... ect ect ect. well, a sleepy kate is NOT a happy kate. the beast ain't no joke, peeps. at the park this morning i was talking to another mom about it. she said something about how we are not doing them any favors by not forcing them to sleep and that when babies don't get enough sleep it really changes their personality. i have discovered that is the TRUTH. lately her little personality is not what it once was. so, im done feeling sorry for her. it's been two weeks. time to adjust, baby kate. right now shes up there screaming her chubby face off, but i wont be retrieving those sweet cheeks from that bed for 2 hours. we went to the park this morning, she had a bottle before and after the park....shes was stimulated, fed and changed, now the babe must sleep!

does this look like a happy babe to you? cute, yes. happy? maybe not so much.

so aside from that life is great. 4 weeks of class left, FOREVER! oooohhhhh i am so excited. ashley comes into town for Time Out For Women today. which is basically EFY for adults and it's amazing. next weekend i go to utah for heathers baby shower and then my momma is coming out here a week or so after that. the holidays are just around the corner and we are moving into the other house next month sometime. exciting things happening in the Young household these days. somewhere in the mix my house is always dirty, showers have become negotiable, i'm balding and my baby wont sleep ....but life is good. i still need to blog about san fran, bj's mission, and kate's 5 months....but the screaming is a liiiiitle distracting. so for now i'm off to drown out the noise with some reality television while i clean my house. may the force be with me.

Boo!

2011-10-30T09:32:00.001-07:00

We embraced the helmet and dressed Kate as a wrestler for the ward trunk or treat. I thought it would be fun for us to dress up too but Bj wasn't into that idea. Although he did suggest we stick with the wrestling theme and dress him as a ref and me as the girl who wears very little clothing and holds up the signs. What a thoughtful and entirely appropriate idea for a church activity.

Since I'm pretty much done with this holiday anyway, I am considering turning off our porch light on Halloween so I can smuggle all of our candy into Time Out For Women this weekend. We shall see.

Happy Halloween!

Arizona State Fair

2011-10-27T23:13:00.001-07:00

Tonight we went to the good ol' fair w/ the Gremillions and Beau. Walked around, tried lots of freaky fried fair food, saw some fat animals and rode the ferris wheel. Sadly, overpriced fried fair food just isn't as delicious as I recall it being from my teen years. Tragic. On the upside I've now sampled fried snickers, chocolate covered bacon, sausage on a stick, a corn dog, roasted corn and a turkey leg. I'm so accomplished, you should probably be jealous.

Yep.

2011-10-24T09:51:00.001-07:00

The babe had a bit of a flat head. So we did what we had to do. Actually her pediatrician said she didn't have to get a helmet. After all, his daughter has a super flat head. And now that she's 12, as long as she isn't wearing pigtails, it's not that noticeable, not really anyway. Hhmm about that. Kate sort of hates it but is getting used to it. It can't be comfortable, so for her sake I hope the next 8 weeks fly by. I think she's diggin' the new paint job though.

4 months

2011-10-05T22:37:00.000-07:00

at 4 months kate:

height: 90th%
weight: 50th %
head: 50th %

on her 4 month mark kate started rolling over. still hates tummy time. this month she started a few things that i think are kinda fun. she holds onto my fingers, shirt, or hair while i hold her. her hand coordination is getting a lot better and she can almost hold her own bottle. she has started to look at me for direction on how she should react to something, she has only done it a few times but it's pretty cute. still not a big cuddlier unless she isn't feeling well, but sometimes she will nuzzles into my neck or lay her head down on my shoulder when she is tired. she still turns into super beast when she is over-tired. loves when i read to her and has started to show interest in some toys. she thinks weird noises are funny and thinks its hilarious when you bounce her up and down. she LOVES the abc's and gets the biggest grin on her face when we sing them to her. she is super ticklish and will laugh really hard the first couple of times you tickle her somewhere but then she gets used to it and will just stare at you until you pick a new spot to tickle. she loves her daddy and sitting her bumbo. shoes have finally started to fit her. wears 3-6 month old clothes. i'm writing this a little late, but at 4 months she was still waking up once a night to eat. she talks all the time, especially when she is tired. sometimes when she is tired (before beast mode sets in) she gets slap happy and will crack up at anything we say or do, it is the funniest thing ever. this month has been so fun. naps and sleeping have not been as consistent as i would like but i guess its part of the process. she is such a laid back little babe with the sweetest personality. i thank heavenly father every night that she is ours forever. i'm one lucky mama.

love her mid-meal smiles.

perfect little button nose

love this little bebe.

white

2011-09-23T10:12:00.000-07:00

i do have some actual events to post on. good ones. mission reunion trips, a day in san fran, bjs birthday......unfortunately, my mind is not occupied with important things that the moment. instead, it is filled with ideas on remodeling a kitchen. a kitchen in a house that we may move into. or maybe not. a kitchen that i may get to cook in one day. or maybe not. and a kitchen i may possibly have say of what goes in it. or maybe not. you see my problem?

the hubs and i were talking about kitchens last night and he said he does not like white kitchens. say whhhhhaaaaaaa?! is he crazy? clearly. while we were in cali he must have smoked something extra special because really. whats not to love????!?

oh i die. a thousand times over. white cabinets, dark wood floors, creamy granite, a farmhouse sink...... nothing short of perfection.

hypothetically, lets say ...ahem, that my husband was to make all of my hopes and dreams come true with one simple decision and we went with white cabinets. we would probably use a tan creamy granite because it's what he uses with work a lot so he can get it for cheaper. or that's the story i get, at least. which reminds me to check that out. the boy is a very good salesman and in this sitch, i might not put it past him to... stretch the truth, if you will.

SO, examples of said granite:

i do believe with right combination it could turn out equally as dreamy as the pictures up top, no? the hubs is all "white is trendy, blah blah, dark wood is classic, blah blah". but guess what?? i like classic things. things that will stand the test of time and still look good in 10 years. and when i googled "timeless cabinet color" guess what came up over and over again???! WHITE.

booyah!

now. clearly all of you agree with me. to humor me though, could you tell me your thoughts on white kitchens? before i go and actually decide on white cabinets and possibly ruin my kitchen. and life. forever. once its decided, we can't go back. ever. bc the money will be spent. and it will be known that it was 100% my choice to go with white cabinets. and since i decided to make my bed of ugly white cabinets, now i must sleep in them. forever.

but it's not like that would happen anyway because white is the obvious choice.

but just in case.
anyone?

texas trip

2011-09-08T19:48:00.000-07:00

last summer our dog duke ran away while we were in texas. we searched for him but he was no where to be found, so we had to come back to az without him. last week, through facebook, someone thought they found him. we looked at pictures and in the pictures the dog closely resembled duke. last saturday morning bj spoke with the people who had the dog and it sounded a lot like duke. bj was convinved it was him. (sadly i think it was more of a see what you want to see type thing). saturday afternoon we packed up and drove to texas with beau to see if it was duke. i was not convinced it was actually duke, but it was a good excuse to see my family, so i was on board! the drive was not nearly as bad as i thought it would be, especially with a baby. kate did great and only cried probably a total of 10 minutes each way...and with each way being about 15 hours, that's pretty dang good.

the weather was AMAZING!!!! it was 80 degrees every day we were there! so great. the first and a half day we spent in denton with my family. liz and t were finally able to meet kate, we had lunch at my sisters, made a red velvet pazookie, and just hung out. that night tristan and i slept on the trampoline together. i was able to spend a few hours with quinn and alayna and it was fun to catch up. after that we went to midlothian where bj took a little trip down memory lane. we visited his old house and a few of his childhood friends. we stayed at chase and melissa's that night and met their new baby girl for the first time. it was a short trip but all the driving was totally worth it. i cannot wait to go back for 2 whole weeks during christmas!

*oh, it did not end up being duke. maybe next time. while we were in texas i made a joke about my current dog(toby) playing in traffic while we were gone. and he did. twice. oops. he survived though. maybe next time....juuuust kidding ;-).
.

with liz and mom

tristan and liz meeting baby kate

beautiful liz

on the tramp the morning after

hangin out

me and the t-man

love the top picture with kate crying

Add caption

noni with kate

with quinn and alayna

eating at nanas pies...so yummy

sick babe

2011-08-26T09:24:00.000-07:00

baby kate is sick and it's sad. on tuesday night before bed she cried for like 20 minutes acting like she was hurt and the same thing happened at 1:ooam that morning. i called the nurse at her doctors office and she wanted kate to come get her ears checked for a possible ear infection. so on wednesday we went to the doctor. twice actually. he ruled out ear infection and constipation but said that she is probably coming down with something from being on a plane and that she may be teething too. he said to give her tylenol for the next couple of days and she should be fine. that afternoon i noticed a rash on her legs and some random small bumps on her. they were pretty subtle but i wanted to know if she was allergic to tylenol ...or if it was some horrible disease that was going to kill us all. clearly that was next in line. so, back to the dr we went. turns out he doesn't care about the rash on her legs or bumps on her body. he said it was probably a side effect from whatever she is fighting and that it may spread over her whole body before she gets better. uh, what? she also had a little diaper rash in between her fat rolls when we went the second time and he told me to put cortisone cream on it and sent us home.

so i have been obeying and giving her tylenol every couple of hours. me and google though...we were bffs yesterday. and lets not pretend... we probably will be today, too. no fever or cold symptoms, yet she is "sick", not acting herself, cuddly, not wanting to eat, sometimes in pain, a rash on her legs (...that maybe has mostly cleared up), irritated skin between fat rolls and super fussy? sounds fishy to me.

so far google and i have diagnosed her with mrsa, numerous bacterial infections, meningitis, eczema and other various diseases that i cannot remember or pronounce.

i suppose its safe to say that i'm a first time mom and apparently i like to do first time mom things. regardless, i hope she is back to her happy self soon.

3 months

2011-08-26T08:29:00.000-07:00

at 3 months kate

-gives lots of smiles
-a few giggles
-thinks weird noises are funny
-not too much of a snuggler...tragically
-has a bit of a flat head....mostly on the left side. hopefully it will correct itself..if not, bring on the helmet i guess
-a VERY light sleeper and has a hard time sleeping anywhere but our house.
-in size 2 diapers
-hates tummy time

kate is still such a good and relaxed baby. she is happy and will smile at almost anything now. except when she is tired. sheesh. if she gets held the wrong way or her head bumps my shoulder while she is sleepy...she turns into this little drama queen and it's basically the end of her world as she knows it. she still has her love affair with the fan and likes to flirt with it all day long. she sleeps great during the night and as long as i feed her at 10pm, i usually don't have to feed her again until 7am. she won't eat as many ounces a day as she is "supposed" to, but her little rolls are getting more delicious everyday so i don't think there is anything to worry about. she loves being outside and her warm baths.

i packed up kate's size 3 month pajamas yesterday. sad! when i packed up her newborn stuff i was so eager for her to start smiling and laughing that i was actually excited she was growing out of her clothes. yesterday though, i was a little sad. i realized that she is going to keep getting bigger and there is nothing i can do about it. i am soo excited for her to grow and the fun milestones that come along with all of that.... but in that moment i felt like i wanted to go make 10 more little babies as fast as i could so i just could keep 'em comin. i love this little baby and everything about being her mama. she has been sick the past couple of days so sleep has been hard to come by...but even during those days, i feel like this is what i'm meant to do. it just feels so good. if there is a place in heaven to take care of babies all day, sign me up!

houston trip

2011-08-23T21:37:00.000-07:00

july 21st my sister, caroline, had her twin boys. last week i flew down for 5 whole days to meet them, introduce them to kate and spend time with my family that lives in houston. i had a blast. with 3 babies and 1 car we couldn't drive anywhere, which was actually perfect. we had a lazy 5 days and it was amazing. yummy babies, good conversation, good food, laughs, some cleaning here and there and lots of trashy reality television... it was great. my dad and lynn came just about everyday to catch up and hang out. the days went by too fast and i can't wait to see everyone again at christmas!

sweet baby boys
papa and kate
dad and lynn
levi and kate
trying to get a shot of the 3 babies and us...hardly any of them turned out but we laughed pretty hard in the process

you can do it all by yo self

2011-08-22T21:42:00.000-07:00

kates nursery is a bit of a work in progress. after a flake out from one of bjs clients, two broken shipments of furniture from amazon, and a month long wait from babies r us....we finally have all of our nursery furniture. so, my latest project has figuring out what i want on the walls. i have been drooling over various ledge shelves for a while now. i wanted them in the nursery so i could display more than a few pictures without it looking cluttered. i went to ana-white again and found these.

after the shelves were done i spray painted some frames white and the project was complete. i finished this project in one day and am really happy with how it turned out. woop!

starting materials
painted and hung
finished product!

i'm probably a little too proud of myself for this project, considering all i had to do was paint and nail the wood together. but i am. hooray!

mean mom

2011-08-12T07:06:00.000-07:00

the sound i'm making in the video is what kate sounds like when she "talks" to us....when i make it back to her, for some reason she cries! after i make it a few times, her bottom lip sticks out really big and she starts bawling. its the funniest/saddest/cutest thing ever.

week in review

2011-08-06T10:33:00.001-07:00

last week was good. naps were rough in the beginning of the week bc i was attempting to stop swaddling kate. it's so hot and she wakes up so sweaty that i feel bad. but no. she doesn't really sleep if she isn't swaddled. so the swaddling will continue. on monday she started smiling a TON. it's weird how it changed all of the sudden. she smiles all day now. its the cutest thing. she laughed for the first time too and it basically rocked my world. on thursday night and sunday night she slept from 8- 7:30 with NO snack breaks! yeaayoooooo. it's only happened those 2 times but i'll take it!

friday night we got a babysitter and went on a date. bj took us to this hole in the wall mexican place where no one spoke english and we had no where to sit. it was DELISH though. places like that remind him of his mission so he loooves them. after dinner we had a nice conversation about how the owners/employees of that run down place were so happy and humble. they live in their own little world and are completely content not keeping up with the latest or being involved in a crazy work schedule. bj mentioned that part of him wished that when we moved to phx that we had of moved into a small duplex and lived more of a simple life for a little longer.

in my head: picturing us living more of a student-y lifestyle rather than the family type of lifestyle we live. living in a small, but cute, duplex. but on a safe street. being a bit more frugal than i am and just enjoying life.

his head: picturing his mission (small, ghetto towns in northern cali. ghetto meaning some houses had dirt floors. for real). us living in a small duplex. on any street. where english and shoes are optional.

i didn't realize our miscommunication until he said "ya we could have bbqs and invite them over".

me:"invite who over?? the people we just bought our food from?"
bj: "ya"
me: "we don't know them. they don't speak english. and i don't speak spanish.".
bj: "you could learn, it's really easy"

and he was completely serious. haha. hhmm. interesting theory, beejers. i love that he loves his mission so much though. and that's why we will be going to visit in september. not move a neighborhood that resembles it.

today was kates first day in the kids klub at the gym. i was really nervous but it went great. i was the first one there and she slept the whole time.

well this is one of those posts that i have been adding stuff to for a few days but is pretty boring. for my personal record. sorraayyyy.

2 months!

2011-07-28T13:36:00.001-07:00

kate is 2 months already! we had her first set of shots yesterday and the actual shots were not as bad as i thought they would be. bj was tied up at work and couldn't go, so i was by myself and was a little nervous because i have heard the experience can be harder for the parents than the baby. she cried pretty hard during the shots and for a minute or two after but then she was fine. the side effects have been my least favorite part of it and even those have been mild. she had a little fever yesterday and today and is more sleepy and cuddly than normal, but i'm not one to complain about extra cuddle time. i can tell she doesn't feel well but all around she is handling it like a champ.

2 month stats:
weight: 11lbs -- 48th %
head: 14 inches --- 27th%
height: 24 1/4 inches --- 94%

kate "talks" and smiles more everyday. i just die over her little coos and her smiles make my day. she is hard to get smiles out of and most of the time we have to work for it. unless you're a ceiling fan. in that case she will give them to you freely. little stinker. the lactation specialist i saw dubbed her a "lazy eater", but she is getting a lot better.. sometimes i am the only one who can get her to eat, which actually makes me feel kinda special sometimes, haha. she is such a happy, content baby. most of the time she is okay just hangin' out. she loves to be held and talked to but sometimes she will get fussy if you don't put her down and let her have her space. loud noises and strange sounds make her jump and her eyes open so wide. her eyelashes seem like they get longer everyday. she loves time with daddy and will just sit contently on his lap while he works or does whatever, it's pretty cute. she definitely has him wrapped around her finger already. case and point: i had him do tummy time with her the other day and she started fussing during it. even if she gets fussy about tummy time, since it is good for her, i usually continue with it anyway. bj put her on her tummy and she started crying after .2 seconds. bj quickly picked her up and started comforting her, which was fine. a few seconds later in a soft voice i hear him say to her "ooh i'm sorry kate, your mom made me do it. i didn't want to do that mean tummy time but she made me do it"...hahah.

she has found her hands and loves to suck on them when her binky isn't handy. she is a great sleeper and takes 3 or 4 naps during the day and sleeps from 8pm-8am. sort of. but not really. she does go down for the first time around 8pm. then i wake her up to eat at 10pm and she goes right back to sleep. she wakes me up around 5am to eat and goes back down until 8am. as long as i go to bed early it works out great.

a few other tid bits:
-"sleeping through the night" is technically (in babywise at least) sleeping from 12am-5am. UMMM that is NOT sleeping through the night. that is a long nap at an inconvenient hour. false advertisement! the whole time i was pregnant and until a few weeks ago when i heard the term "sleeping through the night", i thought they meant actually sleeping THROUGH. THE. NIGHT. don't misunderstand, i really am grateful she for how much she is sleeping right now. it is a step in the right direction...buuuuuutt. i look forward to when she actually sleeps through the night. from like 8pm-8am. the real night. with no snack breaks.
- i feel like i always smell baby pee. even right after i give kate a bath. im so paranoid of everything smelling like a wet diaper, that i actually smell it all the time. and i know its in my head. not pleasant.
-i never noticed that most of the concrete outside of shopping centers is very textured. don't the architects, engineers and contractors know that my baby is usually trying to sleep when i run errands and their textured concrete wakes her the freak up! so annoying.

and of course some pics of the little pea around 2 months

utah

2011-07-25T13:45:00.000-07:00

convo via text:

kat: you should fly ashley out here for her birthday
lance:...or i could just fly you out here
kat:that would work too
lance: find the ticket and ill get it tonight
kat:....okay!

done and done. this was a few weeks prior to ashleys birthday and the plan was to surprise her. ashley can be pretty snoopy sometimes so i was positive she would find out. somehow we kept it from her though and i am so happy it worked out like that! heather planned a surprise party for her the night of her birthday, the same night i flew in. ashley walked in and everyone yelled surprise! after it got quiet again heather announced that there was still one more surprise and as she was talking i walked out holding kate. ashley was so excited and i am pretty positive she really had no idea. she started crying and it was so fun to get such a reaction out of her.

spending almost a WHOLE week up there was SO FREAKIN FUN. ashley and heather are like sisters to me and it was just like being with family while i was with them. heather kept me laughing the whole time, as usual. i forced bj to join us thursday and a great time was had by all. we ate at ashley's new waffle shop in provo -YUM-, hiked the y -much harder than i remember-, layed around, ran errands with ashosmash, got bossed around by heather, rode the scooter, watched the show "i survived" (don't be tempted...it will ruin your life), had foil dinners up the canyon, spent time with mandy and zealand, ate some stupid cherry vanilla ice cream, stayed up way too late, laughed till my stomach hurt and had lots of quality time with my bffs.

surprise!

jerry, kim and celeste were starting their trip in utah just as ours was ending. before we caught our flight out we ate a yummy sunday dinner with them and had VIP dessert at the waffle shop together.celeste is just adorable and is going to love living in utah by her 2 sisters. jealous!

mandy and zealand! i was able to see them three times while i was in utah. i love this sweet picture of zealand kissing kate on the nose. he is 18 months and says the most hilarious things right now. him constantly trying to steal kates binky and saying "oooh yea!!!!" were my favorite.

fun at the canyon

...and some of this little one just cause i can :-)

obsessed

2011-07-21T08:00:00.000-07:00

bows, bows and more bows. lets be honest, i'm not much of a crafter. i usually prefer to just buy the overpriced item rather than take the time to try and make it. i know, shame on me. i bought these adorable itty bitty newborn bows for kate before she was born. to. die. for. they are so stinkin cute and tiny. once i used them them and saw how amazing they were, i planned to buy them in every color. even at $3.50 a pop. i know i know, shame on me again. then my damn dog (that's not his name? weird) decided to eat the pink and purple one. what! you just ate $7 dollars worth of felt cuteness! stupid dog! seeing that the turnover rate for these bows may add up quickly, i decided to try and make them. i bought felt in every color and with some tips from my crafty friends, i succeeded.

so you too don't succumb to overpriced yet exceptionally cute felt bows, i bring you my first (and last? ) crafting tutorial.

1. take felt of choice
2. cut out a piece about 2 inches long and 1/2 inch thick
3. put a dab of hot glue in the middle and cinch the felt together, let glue dry completely
4. fold each side back and secure with hot glue

4. after both sides are glued back, cut the back piece of each side to the shape of your liking
5. cut out a thin piece of felt about an inch long and a quarter of an inch wide

6. glue thin strip on back of bow. once it is dry, wrap around bow and glue other side down.
7. cut out two pieces of felt about 1/2 inch in length and width. cut to angle sides and ends.
8. glue angled pieces on each side of the back of the bow.

9. ta-da, cute bow.
10. make in any freakin' color you want, for basically free! 15 cents per sheet of felt is basically free. eat up, toby.

with the exception of the red one, i made all of the bows in the picture and i think they turned out pretty similar. the felt she used seems to be a little better quality and not quite as fluffy as mine, so next time time i'll try a denser felt.

tips: dried hot glue is ugly so be careful to use only on areas that will be covered up or your bow will be crusty. don't do a tan bow, it looks like a ball of tan poop on babies head. the website says to attach bows with a dab of karo syrup or ky; karo syrup worked a lot better for me.

7.10.11

2011-07-20T08:00:00.000-07:00

kate was blessed at home on sunday july 10th, 2011. bj gave a beautiful blessing and the spirit was strong during the blessing. i love the personal nature of blessings and that it gives us a little insight to what our heavenly father has in store for us. all of bjs brothers were able to be there for the blessing, including nick who is leaving on his mission soon. my mom came in town for the weekend, which i loved. she brought the blessing dress that her and my grandmother made together and that all of my sisters and i were blessed in. the dress is beautiful and i love that kate was able to be blessed in it too.

our little family

the kiddos

the men and kates pretty dress

grandparents

family

baby kate is the perfect addition to our little family and i am so glad she is ours forever.

days like this

2011-07-19T13:51:00.000-07:00

days when i forgo my to-do list, a shower, errands and the outside world. i forget kate's schedule and the baby rules that are usually followed. i hold her while she sleeps and study all of her tiny, ever changing features. i breathe in her yummy baby smell and kiss her chubby little cheeks over and over again. i try to nap with her little body curled next to mine, even though her little sleepy grunts make it impossible for me to get any rest.

life goes by so quickly but days like this seem to slow time down just a little. as hard as i try there seems to be no way to take her all in, even on days like this.

i'm positive these are going to be some of my best "good ol' days". so while the days keep passing and kate keeps growing, i'm going make them mine and try to soak it all in. because to me, right now, these are the days.

weekend visitors

2011-07-19T13:28:00.000-07:00

a few weeks ago bjs mission buddies, aaron and greg, came into town to hang out with bj and meet baby kate. the same weekend cortney and beth came to visit beau. partayyyyy. we played mario brothers, vacuumed toby (in attempt to reduce the amount of shedding he does), went to joes farm grill and neilsons, the boys went to the lake and we took kate to her first movie (where beth stood with kate the whole time...you're a saint woman!).

it was fun to have so many visitors at once. i love aaron and greg and am keeping my fingers crossed that one of them is still single when virg gets home. seriously. how many boys would drive 11 hours each way to visit their friends new baby, just for the weekend?? AND send the new baby a pink michael jorden onesie, hat and pair of socks bc they love sports so much? so thoughtful and cute.

it was great to see cortney again and get to know beth a little better. they were both adorable with kate and i am glad they were able to meet her.

come back soon you guys!!

Birth Announcement

2011-06-23T16:33:00.000-07:00

Jenna over at q.aDESIGN designed Kate's birth announcement and I love it. I was nervous because I can be pretty picky and more often than not I am only sure of what I don't like, not what I do like. Jenna is talented and has great taste though, so she was able to turn my vague ideas into reality in a jiffy.

I am so happy with how it turned out and in the future will be going to her for anything I need designed.

Click HERE to see more of her work and/or contact her.

Thanks Jenna! :-)

1 month old

2011-06-18T20:58:00.000-07:00

Our little baby is already a month old! Crazy. Time has flown by. It is slowing down a little though and it's nice. Those first 3 weeks were a little rough for me. The hormones, lack of sleep, change in lifestyle, my love/hate relationship with nursing and not knowing exactly what Kate needed when she needed it made for one roller coaster of a month! This past week has been the best so far and it gets better everyday. Baby Kate is the light of our lives. We are your typical first time parents that think all of her faces and noises, no matter how similar, are the best and most entertaining thing to ever happen.

At 1 month she:
- Is officially out of newborn diapers
- Grown out of many of her newborn clothes but doesn't quite fit into 0-3 months yet
- Loves to be curled up on my chest
- Has fluffy bird hair after her baths and it is so cute
- Is becoming such a good baby. She only gets fussy if she is hungry, wet or tired. She hates dirty diapers but being tired is definitely the worst of the 3.
- Smiled yesterday and this morning so I am starting to think it may not be gas! Probably is though. haha. She studies my face so hard as I talk to her and I know she will be smiling soon!
- Always has her right hand up on her cheek when she is all cuddled up
- Still has tons of hair. It's getting lighter though and she is getting a slight bald spot on the back of her head
- Doesn't mind tummy time one bit. In fact she frequently falls asleep during it.
- Loooooves soft blankets
- Hates being swaddled. Until she understands that she controls her arms though it is a must
- Is doing pretty good on a 3 hour schedule and is doing great at night now. Typically she wakes up 2-3 times a night to nurse but falls right back asleep. It's awesome!
- Loves baths as long as the water is really warm

What a difference 1 month makes!

just a few days old same pjs at 1 month

Happy 1 month Katebug! We love you so completely.

first time....

2011-06-17T22:59:00.000-07:00

lots of firsts this week...

....first smile: To wake Kate up from her naps I always say her name gently. On Monday when I said her name she opened her eyes and smiled at me. She was only a little over 3 weeks at the time so it was more than likely a coincidental gas smile but I'll take it! It was the sweetest thing and made me look forward to when she starts smiling for real in a few weeks.

....first poop related accident: This week I realized there is a very, very good reason people put blankets under babies when they change their diaper. Hopefully this will be the last time I make this mistake.

Yep that really happened. And yep I took a picture and posted it for for memories sake. You're welcome.

...first time to be publicly embarrassed as a mom: A few days ago we ventured to hobby lobby to get some frames. It was during Kates nap time so I figured she would sleep the whole time. Wrrrooonnggg-o. Right when we were next in line to check out she poops her diaper (this girl does NOT tolerate dirty diapers). She starts fussing so I try to sooth her while she is IN her car seat. So not working. She starts crying. People stare. Especially old the old ladies (still hate those dang old people) She starts crying hard. Then harder. I take her out and try to sooth her. Not working. She is not wearing socks because I hadn't planned on taking her out of her car seat. The old ladies and others get judge-y looks on their faces because I have such a new baby in a public place and she isn't wearing socks. Do they offer to help? no. Do I want their help? Not at all. But the gesture would have been appreciated. The slowest teller EVER to be employed by Hobby Lobby finally starts to ring me up. Kate is screaming by now. I tell the slow teller I have to change her diaper and will be right back. I leave my cart at the front and carry a sock less and screaming Kate to the bathroom to change her diaper. After the diaper change she is happy as a clam. When I get back up there are like 10 people behind me in line and they were about to throw me out of line. She finishes ringing me up (very slowly I might add). I pay and leave. Then call BJ and tell him I am never going anywhere. Ever, ever again.

....first time to actually accomplish all of the errands I set out to do: This one is HUGE. I am slowly realizing that the productivity of my days are at the mercy of a unpredictable new born. Today I had 4 errands to run and really, really wanted to get them all accomplished in one trip because they were all next to each other. I checked her diaper before each stop and was able to avoid any public cry-fests. Thus, my multiple errand mission was accomplished. Victory.

....first time to stay up till midnight since Kate was born. I have a feeling that in a few hours I am going to think staying up to address envelopes and write this blog post was a very bad idea. Oh well, live and learn I guess.

bradley the builder

2011-06-12T12:51:00.000-07:00

A few months ago I read about this website on a friends blog. I thought it was so cool and wanted to try it sometime. A few weeks later I saw the same friend was building this and decided to copy her. Bj and I started on this little project one Saturday and worked on it all day.....and that was basically the last time I touched it. I was pregnant and didn't want to paint it and inhale the fumes so I left my project up to BJ to finish. Him and Beau worked on it randomly over the last couple of months and last night they finished it. Don't look too close because it has flaws but I love that BJ built it and really for our first shot at building furniture, I don't think it turned out bad. It has quirks but I like that about it. It is a little taller than I would have liked and the paint job is not perfect but it's way better than the cheap-o $50 walmart console we had before. Oh yea, that was the original point of this whole thing: to build it because it would be cheaper than buying. ha ha. wellll.....yes the materials are cheaper. But conveniently Bj needed quite a few tools to build this.....so it added up quickly. Lucky for us if something ever happens"we can use the tools to make money"....what? anyone elses husband use that excuse? Well don't worry hubs, I have a back up plan too. If something ever happens I will use this nifty little thing called ebay to sell the clothes and decor that I plan on buying in the coming months. Sound good?

BJ pretty much hates since he is the one who built it so he looks at it with such a critical eye. I don't notice all of that technical crap though so I happy with how it turned out. I'm glad we (he) did this little project and even more glad that it's sitting pretty in my living room right now. Not sure what I am going to put on top of it yet. I need a decorator. Stat.

Before:

After:

Much better, don't ya think??

Belly Button

2011-06-11T20:37:00.000-07:00

Lance, Ashley's husband, came to down a week after Kate was born to do some work stuff with BJ. It was great to see him and I was happy he got to meet Kate while she was still so new. He was so gentle and sweet with her and really held her like she was made of glass. There is just something about men holding babies that melts my heart.

While he was over I changed Kates diaper. As I was changing it I was kinda talking to myself and said "oh, her belly button is about to fall off". Lance quickly sat forward and in an alarmed voice replied "excuse me!? did you say her BELLY BUTTON is going to fall OFF?!!?." haha. In his defense, saying her belly button was falling off probably isn't the technical way to put it. Either way, it gave me a good laugh.
Now look how stinkin cute Lancey-pants looks with a baby :-)....--if you know what i'm sayin....ashley ;-)--

4 years

2011-06-06T13:14:00.000-07:00

June 1st marked 4 years of being married for us! My mom was still in town on our anniversary and was sweet enough to have baby duty for the evening. Going out was a very last minute decision so we just decided to head over to the San Tan area and figure out a place to eat from there. Once we were there we were both too tired to decide on a place to eat, so we just ate at Red Robin because it was right in front of us. It wasn't our most romantic anniversary date but it was definitely the cheapest so that was nice. haha. After our romantic meal we walked around the outdoor mall and then we just went home. It was nice to get out and chat about our last 4 years and what they have brought us. They really have flown by and there is no one else I would rather be spending eternity with. Love you Beejers!!!!!!!

First bath

2011-06-02T21:29:00.000-07:00

Last week my mom and I gave Kate her first bath. She didn't love it but didn't cry as much as I thought she would.

I love me some of that yummy clean baby smell. Mmmhhhmmmm.

first 2 weeks

2011-06-02T20:25:00.000-07:00

I can't believe its been almost 2 weeks since we had our little baby! It seems as if time is standing still for us. I want to remember every second of life right now, I don't want any of these little moments or memories to be forgotten. I want to document all of her faces, the feelings I feel, her coos, her everything. It seems overwhelming and then I realize 2 weeks has already passed! So I better get to documenting.

We just love our little Kate. She is adorable and makes the funniest, funniest faces all the time. Such serious faces that crack me up. Like these...

She has the hiccups a few times a day and they are so adorable but sometimes they are so loud I think they must hurt her. She had them all the time in my belly so it's funny to see her have them out here too. She makes these cute little grunts sometimes that I love.

I am tiiiiired. So very tired. She may have her days and nights confused but I am learning to deal with it for now. I plan on doing babywise with her and started a few days ago even though the book says to wait until 2 weeks. The day before my mom left she said that with each kid you realize how "baby" each baby really is. It really stuck with me and made me want to just enjoy this short baby baby phase with Kate. So for now I am doing as the book says and just focusing on getting full feedings every 3 hours but not worrying about the clock until a little later.

I look at her and wonder what life will be like for her and what her little personality will develop into. I love that she has her dads eyes. Since I look at her all day, when BJ comes home its weird to see the same eyes looking back at me.

I am not sure if its mommyhood or these pregnancy emotions but sheesh. I cried the other night when I read her that book "I'll love you forever". Every time in the book when the mom would sing the little song to the son I choked up and I most definitely couldn't finish at the end when he sang it to her. Who knew? Reading Virginias letters gets me choked up. When I am feeding her I can't help but realize how small and fragile she is. I think back to some of the things I learned this past semester about child abuse and I cry for little babies around the world who are not treated as they should be. It makes me sad to think into the future when Kates perfect innocence will fade and it breaks my heart to think of those children who have had theirs taken away before their time. It makes me so grateful for my knowledge of the gospel and the daily principals it teaches us and the way it molds our lives. I love that BJ and I will be able to teach Kate the gospel as she grows.

At Kates drs appt at 3 days old she was 20 inches instead of 21 inches long...a full inch shorter than at birth because her cone head went away. Pretty funny.

I didn't realize how busy and productive I was able to be before now. Having a baby ((and being majorly sleep deprived)) has forced me to slow down and its been more of an adjustment for me than I realized it would be. I am getting used to it though and its nice. I am so happy I get to stay home with little Kate and I know I will get more adjusted as time goes by. Today was our first solo outing. To be honest I have been slightly terrified to leave the house, especially alone. I could have to nurse, change a diaper, she could cry ...all of this at any given moment. I am a rookie so it was really very intimidating. I am happy to report it was not nearly as scary as I was anticipating. We only went to get some blood work done and BJ met us there, but still. Maybe next time Ill venture to the grocery store. haha. For now though, unless its a must, I am perfectly content not going anywhere until she not quite so new and little.

This morning BJ and I were so tired. Bj came into Kates room as I was nursing her and offered me a bite of his breakfast sandwich. I took a bite and the sandwich was still somewhat cold in the middle! It was one of those frozen microwave ones with egg, sausage and cheese on it. I told him that was disgusting and asked him why he was eating a not fully cooked sandwich. As he was going to lay on the floor he told me that the meat was precooked and that he was too tired to wait another minute until it was done cooking to eat it. haha. Too funny. Bj is a great dad. He is quiet about it but I know he is obsessed with her and it's pretty dang cute.

For now we are loving life as a family of 3 and are interested to see what the next few weeks bring us. Some sleep would be nice :-).

Kates newborns

2011-06-01T09:35:00.000-07:00

My lifelong friend Heather (Coslett) Ferguson came down from Utah 5 days after Kate was born to take her pictures. Heather is pregnant with her first and was not feeling good at all; I was still recovering and having a hard time moving around too much. We were quite the team :-). Luckily my wonderful mom was in town to help run around, get props, make bows and give us her input. We had a lucky afternoon and miss Kate slept the entire time. Her pictures turned out amazing and I am so in love with them. If you are in the Utah area- look Heather up! She is so talented. Check out her website HERE.

Heather- thank you so much for capturing these precious moments, love you!

labor and at the hospital

2011-05-30T09:52:00.000-07:00

On Thursday May 19th I woke up at 4am with contractions. Nothing painful, just distracting enough that I couldn't sleep through them. I started timing them and and they were about 10-12 minutes apart. Around 7am BJ woke up and I told him about it. He said "oh crap, we are having this baby. Feel, is my heart beating fast? Its yours? Is mine?" haha. I told him it was nothing to worry about yet and that after my doctors appt that morning I would call him. By the time my appt came around at 10:00am the contractions were about 7-9 minutes apart. He checked me and I was only at a 2 and 1/2 and he told me that consistency is the key with contractions so as soon as they were consistently 4-5 minutes apart or my water broke, then to go to the hospital. I was pretty disappointed that he did not seem too concerned but I left and went about my day. My contractions got closer and stronger as the day went on. That night I went to dinner with Marianne, Amber and Laurie. We timed them together and they were consistently 4-6 minutes apart and the contractions were strong enough that I couldn't really walk through them but I could talk through them. I did not want to get turned away at the hospital so I went to a movie with Marianne. Halfway through the movie my contractions were hurting pretty bad so I left and said I was going home but I really went to the hospital. I didn't want to be embarrassed if I got turned away so I didn't even call BJ until I was at the hospital going back to get checked. He came right over. The nurse checked and said I was still only at a 2 and 1/2. I told her I had been leaking a lot of fluid too but she said that was normal at the end and didn't do the test to see if my water had broken. She monitored my contractions for about an hour and when I hadn't made any progress she told me to come back when the contractions were stronger. I was in pain and so confused because I was having contractions that hurt AND they were consistently 4-5 minutes apart! Just like my doctor told me! I started crying out of frustration when she told me I was going home. She said she could give me a pain pill to help me sleep and to take Tylenol PM when I got home.

I did what she said but didn't get a second of sleep that night. By Friday morning my contractions were definitely hurting A LOT more but were further apart, about 7-8 minutes. I didn't want to get turned away AGAIN so I said I wasn't going in until they were where they were supposed to be. Around noon I was positive I had made progress so I called my doctors office to see if I could get checked but the doctors had already left for the day. I told the nurse what was going on and she said I should probably wait to go in to the hospital until my contractions were closer but that she would call me in a sleeping pill to help me get some rest that night. At around 3pm I took the sleeping pill hoping to get some rest. After a few hours of sleeping for 7 minutes and being jolted awake during a contraction, sleeping for 7 minutes, jolted awake...I gave up on sleep and got up. Bj and I decided that I was definitely in labor so we were going to try and get my water to break or my contractions closer. First I walked up and down my stairs for 30 minutes, which only resulted in me realizing out much I hadn't been working out during my pregnancy. Next we tried a long walk. I must have looked miserable because while we were walking people pulled over and text my sister in law to make sure I was okay. After that my contractions were about 6 minutes apart and hurting really bad. Around 8pm I was in enough pain that BJ decided we were going to the hospital regardless of how far apart they were.

Once we got there the nurse checked me and said it looked like my water had been leaking. She did the test and said it was my water and that it had probably been leaking for a few days. That meant I was there to stay. Hallelujah! I was so happy I started crying and could have kissed that blessed nurse if she had been standing closer to me.

We were taken back to labor and delivery around 9pm where I got hooked up to the ivs and junk. The nurse asked me if I wanted my epidural right then and I said YES yes and YES! After that I was out of pain and the sleeping pills I had taken earlier that day started to take affect. Laurie, Brad and Marianne came to visit and I fell asleep shortly after they got there. While I was sleeping I wasn't making much progress so the nurse put me on pitocin. Around midnight the she came in to flip me over and I told her I was feeling pressure. She checked me and told me I was at a 10 and ready to push. I was in shock a little and still pretty groggy so I tried to wake up and we started pushing around 12:15am. At first it was confusing because I really didn't know how to push but they brought a mirror out and it helped that I could see the progress I was making with each push. At 12:45am the nurse had me stop pushing to wait for my doctor to get there. We waited until around 1:00 and those 15 minutes were SO LONG. I knew what a good push felt like, I could see her head and had this huge desire to push. Once he got there, I pushed for a few more minutes and she was out.

They handed her to me and it was so unreal. I remember being so in the moment. Happy, confused, amazed, in love, exhausted and in aw that this little person we had been waiting 9 months for was finally in my arms. I watched BJ while they cleaned her up and he was snapping pictures looking like such a proud dad. It was definitely one of the best days of our lives and one we will never forget.

so happy to be admitted to the hospital

cleaning her up right after she was born
we did it!
holding our sweet baby girl
proud new daddy
in recovery holding our babe
sleeping soundly
both grandmas
going home

beautiful mess

2011-05-25T15:23:00.000-07:00

Kate Olivia Young was born on Saturday May 21st at 1:14am. The past few days have been a whirlwind. A wonderful whirlwind but somewhat of a blur nonetheless. We are exhausted, happy, tired, emotional, more tired and so in love with this little girl. She is amazing and couldn't be more perfect. Life is good.

more to come.....

lets seeeeeeee....

2011-05-19T04:40:00.000-07:00

I am determined to turn this blog into a book this year. Except that means I actually have to document all of the things I want to remember throughout the year. Which brings me to my next thought: how much info is too much info on this little blog? There are little details I want to be reminded of as I flip through this book in 10 years, yet they might be a little TMI for everyone else. Such as- how much (or how little really) I am effaced and dilated at my weekly appts. In 10 years when I am wondering how my pregnancies progressed at the end, it would be nice to not have to drag out the ol' journal for that year and find that date just to know. When I could otherwise simply open my nifty blogbook that I will have displayed in my house and say "aha! there is that useless info I was looking for, perfect". Decisions, decisions people. For now, I'll keep those tasty little morsels of information to myself. You should consider yourself lucky on that account because it IS 4:45am and I am blogging so who knows what could end up on here by the end of this post.

EASTER:
Was great. I made BJ an Easter basket and surprisingly he made me one too. I kept telling him we were going to exchange baskets this year, all the while thinking he would forget because it was kinda silly. he remembered though and it was kinda cute.

ta-da!

MATERNITY PICS:
I was really hesitant to take these at all. I knew I wanted to remember my first pregnancy buuuuutt at the same time, I'm pregnant and definitely look it. And who realllly wants to document a chubby, swollen stage in their adult life? hmm. Oh yea i forgot I'm working on a good attitude. I am glad I took these and in 10 years won't care that all my pregnancy weight went to my face. Hooray! Did I get that right??

Anyway, I decided to just have a "mini session" done by a friend in my ward. The day of I actually tried to cancel. I sent her a email telling her never mind and that I was sorry. An hour before the appt she text me and said she had the sitter lined up and would meet me at the fountain in our neighborhood at 6. wtc?! I checked my email and realized I spelled her last name wrong in the email that never made it to her. So I went and although I am not in love with myself in the pictures, I am glad i have it documented.

I guilt tripped BJ int taking these with me. He wan not planning on it at all and I was not going to make him. At the last minute I was chickening out and asked him to please meet me there too. I thought he was not going to show up because he thinks maternity pictures are pretty lame but he showed up!

Why am I faceless these? Because now that I have this little event documented on my blog, at the end of the year when I am putting together my book I will remember to go back and put the ones with my face in for the whole world NOT to see. And I will edit this whole little paragraph out. booya. I love technology!

TEMPLE with Virg:
My mom came up to finish getting Virg ready for her mission and to go through the temple with her for the first time. Virg, my mom, BJ and his dad were all there and I am so glad I got that experience with her.

VIRG goes to the MTC!
After going through the temple Virg and my mom flew to Texas for a few days and then Virg was off to Utah! Lucky for her, our wonderful friends ashley and heather were able to spend the last 2 days with her and take her into the MTC. They went to the temple, took her for a few "last meals", gave her advice and I am sure made her laugh a whooole lot. I wish I could have been there with them.

I is amazing how much I much miss her already. We have lived together the past year and it was a flashback of high school. you know, all of those really mature fights about taking your stuff and whose mess is whose? Yes, it was lovely. Sike ya out. We had days we loved it and laughed our heads off and others that we wanted to kill each other. Such is the relationship of sisters that live together, eh? In the end I am glad we had this experience and that I was able to see her so much before she left for a year and a half. I miss her and ton and love hearing from her. She has an amazing attitude all the time and I know she will be the best missionary to the people of Peru.

LIFE:
is good. I finished this semester of school and passed (we've lowered the bar these days) all the 19 hours I took, including MATH. nothing short of a miracle. Now that the semester is over and I have gone part time at work, I have to say being pregnant isn't so bad. Having time to relax and get ready for this baby makes a difference. Who would of thought. I think I may even kinda miss being pregnant. Don't hold me to that one though :-).

okay I am going to go mop my floors or something really cool since my husband is in there just sleeping away like a little angel. Lately when I tell him how much I can't sleep he proceeds to tell me how weird it is that he CAN sleep sooo great these days. Barf. I'll kill 'em. Or maybe just wake him up by doing a load of laundry right now. We shall see.

baby shower!

2011-04-10T18:26:00.001-07:00

This past Saturday was my baby shower at Amber's house. The decorations were adorable and the food was delicious. I have such creative and generous friends and family who spoiled me and baby Kate with so much.

The hosts preparing Some of the cute decorations Yummy food from Lion House The cake pops Rose brought Opening gifts The shower was a lot of fun and I was happy that so many people were able to make it. Thanks Amber, Marianne and Laurie for throwing me such a wonderful shower. It turned out great and I loved every second of it. You guys are the best!

crusty

2011-04-06T20:18:00.000-07:00

If you fall into this category, I probably don't like you. As of right now. And maybe forever. The dental office I work at sees mostly older patients. The elderly are supposed to be endearing, wise, sweet, happy, tell cheesy jokes and be laid back.

Wrong.

Most are condescending, feisty, have lame humor, sometimes smell, are grouchy and slow.

I KNOW I am young. This does not mean you can give me crusty looks while you figure out that the bouquet of fake flowers next to your hand is actually a bouquet of pens with flowers on them. Every office DOES THIS, catch up already. And no, you can't take one home, that's the whole reason we have the flowers on them! And no, there is no senior citizen discount on dental work, BECAUSE you're all old. Yes his name is Dr. Sandstrom. Not Sandstorm or Sanderson. When I try to nonchalantly say his name back to you in the correct way so that YOU don't look dumb when you talk to him, do not correct me back. I'm pretty sure I know the name of the dentist I work for. oh and you spent $945.00 dollars here??? 3 years ago??? Well whoop-a-di DOO. NO you did not "practically help build the office" like you think. And yes, everyone uses that same lame joke. No that does not make you entitled to free cleanings forever. And NO it's not okay to bring a grocery sack and fill it up with our toothpaste and floss samples.

I do realize this is probably a product of my pregnancy hormones at their best. I do not care.

nesting

2011-04-03T23:02:00.000-07:00

help. i was under the impression that "nesting" meant you had this undying urge to clean, organize and get everything ready for the baby. while it does entail all of the above, it has also given me an almost uncontrollable desire to decorate my entire house. for the baby. the baby obviously needs a new sectional, throw pillows for my bedroom, a picture frame collection for the upstairs hallway, an over sized clock for the loft and a shelf for my entry way . Yes, the baby obviously needs all of those things. help. me. please.

happy 25th birthday to me!

2011-04-03T22:15:00.000-07:00

I love being spoiled on my birthday and this year did not disappoint

at work we ate this amazing cake.....

.... i was given these amazingly comfortable slippers from the hubs...

...while I was at work Virg hung up 25 reasons why she thinks I am great all around the house...

...had a girls birthday night with my sister in laws and mother in law. We ate yummy food and saw this

...and I received lots of birthday calls, texts and cards in the mail. I used some birthday moolah (thanks dad and lynn :-)!) to buy my first sewing machine. I am pretty excited for school to end so I can learn to use it.

It was a wonderful birthday and I am grateful for my family and friends who made me feel so special.

youre gonna miss this

2011-03-15T21:43:00.000-07:00

this weekend was simple but wonderful. Saturday morning bj and i woke up early to go to the temple. we were all ready to go but couldnt find his recommend. so instead, we made breakfast together and noticed the weather was too nice to not do something outside. we decided to go on a bike ride together. except we only had one (borrowed) working bike. i rode the bike while bj ran with toby. we let toby play in the fountain in our neighborhood to cool off and bj kept telling me i was torturing him as he ran beside me. after that we ventured off to home depot to get supplies for a project we are doing together.

((we are building this together. more on that later))

we wandered around home depot getting everything we needed for the project. it took longer than we thought and bj was getting grumpy so we sat outside and chatted while he ate a hot dog. we picked up lunch on the way home and went to work on our project. the majority of the day was spent in the garage cutting the wood together and bj teaching me how to use a table saw. around 4 we had most of the wood cut and decided to take a break. we took toby in the car and drove out to one of bjs flip houses. it was perfect weather that night and we sat in the back yard of the flip house with toby trying to decide if the road that ran behind the house was too loud or not. we dropped toby off at home and went to meet some friends for some dinner. after dinner we came home and watched a few episodes of our current favorite show how i met your mother before falling asleep.

we did not do anything extra special or even kinda special this weekend, but it was a good weekend and i want to remember it. as the time gets closer to our little babe making her entrance into our lives, my heart aches a tiny bit that weekends like this, of just us, will be few and far between. 4 years has been perfect for bj and i to get to know each other and find our own little niche. i dont think this takes away from how excited we are to become a family of 3 or to be new parents. it will be a big change and a really, really good change that we couldn't be more thrilled about. but i know in the future when those moments of pre-baby nostalgia come, it will be weekends exactly like this one that i miss. i love bj and i love the "us" that we have become. after the baby comes i hope we remember to make an extra effort to keep go on dates and spend some time with just each other. the end.

let the countdown begin!!!!

2011-03-15T21:03:00.000-07:00

i am finally in the 3rd trimester! wooooo freakin hoooo. this has been an exceptionally long pregnancy. why, you ask? oh, because i found out i was pregnant like the day i got pregnant. well no, but i basically took a pregnancy test everyday that i could after we started trying to get pregnant and knew the second that the line turned the fainest pink to ever exist. my dates were off and i thought i was 6 weeks along when we found out. that morning bj and i promised not to tell anyone. that was at 5:00am. at 5:15 i picked my friend amanda up for the gym, screaming the second she got into the car, "im pregnant!!!!!". oops. the day continued that way and by the end of that night, all of our family and anyone we worked with knew. they knew that we were 6 weeks along. except i actually wasn't. when i went to the doctor a few weeks later, it turned out i was actually only 6 weeks along at that point. before, when i was telling anyone who would listen, i was only 3 and a half weeks pregnant. kinda funny. needless to say, the countdown has been long and i am excited to be on the homestretch! 10 weeks left.

a few things at 7 and 1/2 months

- slight swelling of the hands and feet at night

-braxton hicks. i feel them more when i am working out consistently. those false contractions may or may not be my only motivation for the gym these days. the more i feel them, the sooner i will go into labor..right??? no? no. but it makes me feel like it, so to the gym i will go.

-i feel her move more on my right side than on my left. weird.

- we had her 3D ultra sound which was so awesome! i am so glad we chose to do one.

- pregnancy cravings- citrus. i loooove anything citrus and eat grapefruits/oranges every single day.

- im still more emotional. not mean, just more weepy. my irritability also seems to be increasing but that could just be because im gumpy about my increasing chubbiness. who knows.

5 months

6 months

7 months

its really hard to imagine growing for another 10 weeks.

here are some of the 3D ultra sound pictures. SO neat! whats crazy is that these are "bad" 3D pictures. she was facing the wrong way, so the tech (who i love) spent like 20 minutes trying to get pictures of her face. this is "all they could get", and the tech said that when they can get a good shot, you can see every feature perfectly and that the pictures look just like a baby in real life. this type of ultra sound isn't routine in the office i go to, so it was going to be $150 to get it done. they couldn't get any "good shots" though, so it was free! since we dont know the difference, we are trilled with the way they came out and are just happy to have gotten a sneak peak at our little babe for no additional charge. woop!

although we are bias, we think she is simply adorable and cant wait to meet her!

yum

2011-03-15T20:16:00.000-07:00

when bj and i first moved into our house, i wanted to paint my kitchen red. i was devastated when i saw that my sister in law, who lives a block away, had a red kitchen. a real travesty. i couldn't copy her, i had to be original. or something. dont worry, ive wised up since then. ive since learned that copying is what families are FOR. duh. they always have great ideas, clothes, furniture, decor, makeup....so what better to do than copy them? nothing, i tell you. i am currently in the process of forcing my husband to buy me the exact same sectional that 2 of my sister in laws have. what? i know exactly what shade of velvety chocolate brown it is in real life, how to clean it and that it is amazing for sunday naps. perfection.

so, since i am so into copying these days, here is a recipe that made my husband love me slightly more than he did before. i copied it from said sister in law down the street. who copied it from sister-in-law across town. enjoy.

umm and i guess you cant really call this a recipe bc i dont have any measurements. but this is how it was told to me and i figured it out, so you can too.

Coconut Tilapia and Shrimp
-thawed tilapia fillets (however many you want)
-thawed jumbo shrimp (with the peel OFF)
-panko bread crumbs
-coconut flakes
-canned coconut milk
-salt
-pepper
-onion powder
-flour
-honey (optional)
-eggs
-rice

mix flour, salt, pepper and onion powder in bowl. in separate bowl combine panko crumbs and coconut flakes, you can mix equal parts panko and coconut but i really like coconut so i did more coconut. beat eggs in separate bowl. dip tilapia into flour mixture first, next into the egg mixture, then into the coconut mixture. repeat with remaining tilapia and shrimp. drizzle butter on top and bake on 375 for 30 min, or until done. i broiled mine at the end for a few minutes to get it extra crispy.

make rice as you normally would, except make with half water and half coconut milk. serve fish and shrimp over bed of rice. take the remaining coconut milk and drizzle it on top of your rice and fish, or add a little honey and use as a dip.

the end.

another recipe we have been loving lately are these giant chocolate chip cookies. so good. i am generally not a fan of plain homemade chocolate chip cookies. i like the kind made out of the premade dough and of course the ones from paradise bakery...but all other than that, chocolate chip cookies usually dont do it for me. i got the recipe off of this little blog i follow- thereciperecycler.blogspot.com and i have made them 3 times. in the past month. dont you judge me. instead make them for yourself and thank me later. yum.

Thick and Chew Chocolate Chip Cookies
From The New Best Recipe

Makes about 18-24 large cookies.

These over sized cookies are chewy and thick, like many of the chocolate chip cookies sold in gourmet shops and cookie stores. They rely on melted butter and an extra egg yolk to keep their texture soft. These cookies are best served warm from the oven but will retain their texture even when cooked. To ensure the proper texture, cool the cookies on the baking sheet. Over sized baking sheets allow you to get all the dough into the oven at one time. if you re using smaller baking sheets, put fewer cookies on each sheet and bake them in batches.

Ingredients

2 cups plus 2 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled until warm
1 cup baked light or dark brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg plus 1 egg yolk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1-1 1/2 cups semi sweet chocolate chips

directions

1. adjust the oven racks to the upper and lower middle positions and heat the oven to 325 degrees. line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper or spray with them nonstick cooking spray or use a non-stick silicon mat.

2. whisk the flour, baking soda and salt together in middle bowl, set aside

3. either by hand or with an electric mixer, mix the butter and sugars until thoroughly blended. beat in the egg, yolk, and vanilla until combined. add the dry ingredients and beat at low speed just until combined. stir in the chips to taste.

4. roll a golf ball size of the dough into a ball (or use a two tablespoon ice cream scoop), for standard size cookies or use a scant 1/4 cup amount of dough for larger cookies. (i used 2 tablespoons). hold the dough ball with the fingertips of both hands and pull into 2 equal halves. rotate the halves 90 degrees and, with the jagged surfaces facing up, join the halves together at their base, again forming a single ball, being careful not to smooth the doughs uneven surface. place the formed dough balls on the prepared baking sheets, jagged surface up, spacing them 2 1/2 inches apart.

5. bake until the cookies are a light golden brown and the outer edges start to harden yet the centers are still soft and puffy (and look a little bit wet in the middle), 15-18 minutes, rotating the baking sheets front to back and top to bottom halfway through the baking time. cook the cookies on the sheets. remove the cooled cookies from the baking sheets with spatula.

enjoy!

called to serve!

2011-03-15T19:47:00.000-07:00

a few weeks ago my little sister virg received her mission call. she put her papers in and didnt get her call until a month later! it was a long month with 4 disappointing fridays but we finally saw that pretty white envelope in the mail! since she lives with us, bj and i were able to be with her while she opened it and it was such a fun experience. we had my mom, kim, jerry and heather all on the phone listening.

she was called to serve in the cuzco, peru mission where she will be speaking spanish. she leaves may 11th and we are so thrilled for her! she will be an awesome missionary and i cant wait to hear all about her experiences.

bj looooves anyone who can speak-a-spanish and anything that has anything to do with those cultures, so he is THRILLED for her. he even told her that if he could, he would go there right now for 2 years. he loved his mission so much that he would drop everything going on in his life right now and just serve mission after mission his whole life, if he could. i tried not to take it personally when he said that. aaaahh, what a sweet husband who loves serving the lord. siiiiike, i almost punched him in the head. what, life with a 7 month prego isn't blissful?! HUH?! ahem...anyway. we are thrilled for her but will miss her dearly. tragically i will be pregnant when she leaves and probably pregnant when she returns. blah. we love you virg!

valentines

2011-02-26T10:36:00.000-08:00

i love valentines day. with life being so busy, its nice to have 1 day set aside to remind those you love, just how much you love them. plus, my valentine is a hunk.

our schedules are pretty crazy this semester so for valentines we just wanted to relax at home. that morning i woke up extra early to make bj breakfast in bed. and by bed i mean kitchen. omelette's, hash browns, fruit, and oj --yum. accompanied by a sweet note, of course. that night i came home to flowers, a note and a yummy steak dinner cooked by my one and only.

happy valentines!

little cutie

2011-02-01T19:17:00.000-08:00

4 weeks ago we found we are having a little girl! we are so excited. well, now we are. i wont lie, bj was slightly (majorly) disappointed when we found out the baby was of the girl variety. and i was maybe a little. me- only bc i knew how excited bj would have been to have a boy. bj..well for obvious reasons. a few funny things he said after we found out:

"a girl??? what am i gonna do with a girl???? im supposed to have a little buddy to hang out with"

bj: this is your fault

kat: uhh....in reality its YOUR fault. literally.

bj: you would say that, wouldn't you.

haha, what a dork.

after the appointment we went to buy a few outfits to celebrate knowing the gender. i knew he was a little bummed so when were in gap i let him pick everything out. it was really cute to watch him walk around with these little pink pajamas and a flowery pink dress with matching shoes. i could tell he was starting to warm up to the idea a little. after getting home that night, we were sitting on the couch watching tv. bj was looking around and he suddenly informed me that our 2 story house was too dangerous for a little girl and we were going to have to move into a 1 story immediately. haha. aaaannnd the next day when i got home from work he had installed an alarm system. really freakin cute. i just love that boy.

here are some pictures of our little gal at 19 weeks.

cutest profile i've ever seen

to be honest im not sure how this picture shows us that shes a girl. when i asked the ultrasound tech if she was sure, she said "unless your little boy has a vagina then it is definitely a girl". so i went with it.

here is a little video of her moving around. so cute. actually its probably only cute to me and my mom. and maybe ashley. so there ya go, mom and ashley. she moves around alll the time and i love it. during the ultra sound the tech kept making comments about how active she was. at both of my appointments since then the dr commented on how much he can hear her move while we are listening for the heartbeat. its so fun. and surreal that there is a little baby in there just baking away. strange. her kicks are starting to get much harder now. sometimes they catch me a little off guard. in 4 weeks we have our 3D ultra sound appointment, which i am so excited about.

that's all for now. tata.

ode to maternity clothes

2011-01-22T09:12:00.001-08:00

dear maternity clothes,
i do not like you. you tricky sons of b's. i remember my pre-pregnancy glee when i saw shadeclothing.com was going out of business, thus all the maternity wear was on clearance! i so happily bought your undershirts in a variety of colors. i was slightly bummed when you arrived and you looked so big. i tried you on, and indeed, i was swimming in you. i naively thought to myself, "i should have gotten maternity smalls! this medium is NEVER going to fit!". you can imagine my sadness as my old undershirts gradually stopped fitting...and now you, you "huge" maternity undershirt, you fit like a glove. i look at my old undershirts and wonder if i ever really fit into them or if i was simply wearing my clothes too tight all along. there are even a few that were "big"...my go to comfy undershirts, that i look at now and have doubt that i ever really fit into.

i remember going into maternity stores at 13 and 14 weeks, and happily buying maternity clothes. so excited over a cute shirt or cardigan that would look "so cute" once i have my belly. well, that is simply not the case. now that i have my belly, you are in fact NOT cute. so, i do not like all of you. every maternity shirt i ever bought and was excited to wear.

the other day i finally separated my closet into your side, maternity, and a non-maternity side. your side has a few non-maternity clothes that i can still squeeze into...but the numbers are dwindling. in fact, your whole side is so small and option-less. i look at the non-pregnancy side of my closet and think WOW! i had so many clothes! how did i not notice? when i fit back into those i will never need to shop again. now... we know that wont actually happen, but once i fit back into those little gems, i will appreciate them much more than before.

so yes, i hate you. and from here on out, i refuse to buy everything that has anything to do with you. if this means that at 9 months all thats left to wear are my stretchy pants and bjs t-shirts, so be it. i don't want you in large numbers or to stick around for too long. i am counting down the days until i can pack you away and not look at you again (at least for a year or two).

not appreciating your trickery,
katherine

ps. maternity pants, you are the exception. i love you and you can stay. i am not sure how i ever wore such confining pants. with your stretch and elasticity...the combination is just right. i may wear you forever.

utah trip

2010-12-22T20:47:00.000-08:00

this weekend we went to utah to see these bjs brother and brenna get hitched .

the lovebirds:

everything was beautiful and we were happy to be with them on their big day

it was FREEZING outside. i am pretty sure i almost died.

only 1 minor emotional breakdown due to being freezing, starving, and momentarily not being able to find that little purple ribbon that is tied around my waist. these emotional "moments"are getting a little too frequent for my liking.

after the wedding festivities i was able to spend lots of time with these two

saturday night us girls made dinner for all of the boys. 2 of bjs very good friends/comps on the mission came too. it was so good to see aaron and meet greg for the first time. so all you single ladies, these two boys are STUDS and are not engaged yet. one of them may have a girlfriend but really, unless there is a ring, who cares. ha ha just kidding.

we played lots of games...and LOVED IT! we are not big game players but heather may have converted us. we stayed up until after 1am both nights...pretty much a record for me these days. it was all fun and games until the bully (heather) and a few others who shall remain nameless (mckell, nick f and bj) started getting all competitive. their game faces went on and heather quickly informed me that the weak and slow go down fast in the world of games. survival of the fittest. got it, heather, got it.

on the way to the airport on sunday we stopped by the temple to look at the pretty lights.

no lies though, i am pretty sure the arizona temple lights are just as pretty :-).

bffs with our husbands

the weekend was really fun and i am glad we were able to fit so much into a few days. i did forget how cold utah was and that unless you are snowboarding, anything active and outside is kinda out of the question. yet another reason why arizona is fabulous year round :-).

tomorrow we are off to colorado for christmas and the day we get back we find out what we are having...yay!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

hmmm...

2010-12-12T19:38:00.000-08:00

life is good. a lot has happened since i last blogged but since my husband likes to steal my camera, i documented none of it. the weekend before thanksgiving my sister caroline and my mom had a layover here so we were able to hang out for a night and that was really fun. for thanksgiving my mom came in for a whole week and it was great to spend time with her. the day after thanksgiving bj caught the stomach flu. the next morning virg caught it, that afternoon i caught it and that evening my mom caught it. sorry to give you stomach flu on your way out, mom :-(.

i finished all of my finals this past week so now i can play for a month! woo! i also finished most of my christmas shopping this weekend. no christmas tree for us this year though. boo. its just hard to justify buying and decorating a tree when we dont have kids yet and we will be out of town for the holiday. next year though, we are FOR SURE getting into the christmas spirit. until today there was not a trace of christmas in our house. we have a few christmasy things in the closet but i wanted it to look complete, not just a few dinky decorations here and there. so naturally, instead of putting up what we do have, i just complained that to the hubs that he was a scrooge for wanting to stick to our budget instead of going all out :-). tonight though, he was in charge of cleaning downstairs and i was in charge of the upstairs. when he was done he called me down to look and sat there beaming while i looked around. not only had he cleaned the heck out of the house but he hung up our stockings on the railing, put out our santa candy bowl, laid a christmas book on the table and hung up this christmas quilt my step mom made me. he is really a rare breed. so cute. and i have to admit, some decorations do look better than none.

oh yea, pregnancy is going well now! right around week 13 i started feeling a lot better! i was still queasy for a few weeks, but nothing like it was. now, at a little over 16 weeks i am feeling like a million bucks and its great.

pregnancy info :

*i am still getting up to pee far too many times a night.

*i am finally starting to show a little

*cravings: hmmm. i am not sure i have any real ones. everything does seem to taste better pregnant. i have always gone on these kicks where i find a food i love and its all i want for a week and then i forget about it... so its hard to tell if its pregnancy related or not but these days i am loving celery with peanut butter or ranch. yum. there was a week where if i could have eaten cheese enchiladas for every meal i would have. luckily i have some self control and only them once. okay twice. ive been working out though, so back off. luckily the enchilada infatuation is over and now i am just trying to eat as healthy as i can around the holidays. oh actually something that IS pregnancy related is sweets. before i got pregnant i was totally a sweets person. if i craved something or wanted something calorie loaded, it was allllways sweets. right now, not so much. ill still eat it if its there but i don't want them the way i did before.

*i think i have felt the baby move. there are times, especially at night, when i feel this weird sensation in my stomach. its not like kicks but its definitely something. i have never been pregnant before so i cant be sure, but i think that's my little nugget moving around!

*we find out in 2 weeks and 3 days what we are having...cant. freaking. wait.

*now up 2 full cup sizes. and now i would be okay if they stop growing. seriously. enough is enough! bj would beg to differ though.

here are the bump pictures thus far:

2 months

3 months

4 months

yum

2010-11-17T17:36:00.002-08:00

i saw this recipe on a cooking website i follow, justcookalready.com. i have been making it the past couple of days for lunch and YUM! it is really good.

so, for your eating pleasure:

tomato, cucumber and avocado salad

3 T fresh lime juice

2 T olive oil

1 T red wine vinegar

1 tsp granulated sugar

1/4 tsp kosher salt

1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper

2 medium cucumbers, peeled and chopped

2 cups cherry tomatoes

1 large avocado, pitted and chopped

1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese

1. prepare dressing: whisk together lime juice, red wine vinegar, Olive oil, sugar, salt and pepper in small bowl. set aside

combine cucumbers, tomatoes and avocado in large bowl. toss with dressing and feta cheese.

chill until serving.

ps. yes, this does mean i am feeling better. much much much better. yay! more on that later.

loved

2010-11-08T18:14:00.000-08:00

i am not feeling that great tonight but i wanted to write a quick post to remember how grateful i have been feeling lately. when someone needs help, you just help them. someone had a baby or surgery? sure ill bring them dinner. so simple. but it feels totally different when those people are helping YOU. for the past few weeks i have felt so down and sick, and so many people have rallied around me to make sure i am doing okay. how great is that? i know i'm more emotional right now, but it makes me feel overwhelmed with gratitude that the ones i love, cherish and would do anything for if they needed it, feel the exact same way about me. i have gotten countless calls and texts asking how i am, medicine in the mail, our good friends and neighbors alexis and bj have invited us to dinner so many times, old friends have dropped dinner by my house, my bff has "helped"/written a huge paper for me AND last wednesday i came home to a spotless house and ALL of my laundry done. seriously. that actually happened. my sister in law, marianne, took her morning "off" from being a mom to scrub my toilets and wash my dirty clothes. how lucky am i?!!!?

in addition to that, i cannot express enough how great bj has been. he has eaten quite a few hot pockets and ramon noodles for about 6 weeks now, which really...that cant be good for you. he gets up in the middle of the night for me to let the dog out or get me water, and listens to me whine and cry daily. and doesn't complain.

it makes me feel so good inside that all of these people sacrificed for little ol me. now more than ever, i am so grateful for my knowledge of this gospel and eternal families. i get to be with these people i love (plus the growing bebe) forever and that's pretty darn great.

well, that's all for now. goodnight.

p-p-p-p-pregnant

2010-10-29T20:37:00.001-07:00

we're pregnant. yay!

i have been writing in my journal really often because i want to remember this time but i have not been very good about writing on here. but lets see ...we could not be more thrilled to be pregnant. so excited to have our own little family. i am constantly day dreaming about holding this little bebe (currently the size of a kumquat) and living life a family of 3. so aside from all of those obvious mushy feelings----pregnancy is hard. and i am only a quarter of the way through. ha! my mom was only sick with 1 out of her 5 kids, so i just assumed i wouldn't get sick. well ha ha ha ha because i did. throwing up and all. at about week 6 it hit me. i woke up feeling bad one day and i thought "oh this is because i didn't get enough sleep last night. or maybe i have the flu". wrong and wrong. it stayed and stayed and has continued to stay. for the first 2 weeks i cried everyday. seriously. every. single. day. probably 2 times a day. i could not imagine getting through a few more MONTHS of this all day sickness stage. and i would sit there hugging the toilet wondering very seriously why anyone has more than one child, what is wrong with these women! at one point i thought bj was going to bribe me to get pregnant again. now i may have to bribe him :-). and i may or may not have told anyone who would listen to never, ever get pregnant. or at least wait until you could quit life for 9 months. bc that happens so often. in one of the conversations with ashley, where i was warning her, i was telling her all about the little "treats" in this first trimester of pregnancy ..and she was laughing. and i was laughing. but while i was laughing, in my head i realized that someone, sometime had told me the same thing. they tried to warn me. but until you go through it, you just don't know the misery.

hahahha.

okay this post sounds so dramatic. wow. but its true. and maybe all you not pregnant at the moment women have forgotten. but don't worry, during your next pregnancy when this bliss comes rushing back to you, you can cry on my shoulder. i promise :-). anyway, i have some good days and some bad days. i am just sick and tired of being sick and tired. it will pass though and i look forward to the 2nd trimester.

other things about being pregnant:

- i love my long, strong nails!

- i love day dreaming all the time this little bebe

- i am up more than a full cup size. which is awesome.

- i am alwaayyyyys thirsty. always. right now i am on my 3rd liter of water and i feel like i could drink a whole pool.

-having to pee. allll the time.
-i love reading on baby center about the things my baby is going through that week. then going back almost everyday that week to read it again....in case i missed something or something new shows up.

-bj is a champ. he has comforted me while i cry, sat with me while i throw up in the middle of the night, and has gotten me anything i need/want. what a good boy i have.

well that about covers it for now. i love my sweet husband and our little growing baby. this is a sweet time in our lives and i am grateful we get to experience it.

ashley comes to visit

2010-09-26T11:40:00.000-07:00

my bff ashley and her husband, lance, came down to visit this weekend. it was so nice to have them here!!!

the first morning they were here we went to visit virg at work. virg was leaving that afternoon to go on the trail for 4 days, so that was the only time we were going to see her all weekend. sad. i love these two a whooole lot.

after that we went and met bj for lunch at 5 guys. lance and bj went to shoot guns that afternoon while ashley and I went to the mall :-). that night the four of us made dinner and just hung out.

saturday morning ashley and lance made us delicious crepes. YUM. lance served his mission in france so they were pretty legit ;-). my favorite was the really thin ones with cream and fruit inside.

after stuffing ourselves with crepes we went to hike camelback mountain. its a pretty popular hike in the valley but for some reason i had never done it. the hike was really pretty but harder than i thought it would be. perhaps the 107 degree weather had something to do with it. we took toby with us and about halfway up he kept laying down, so we decided to turn around. when the weather cools off i want to go again and hike the whole thing. you'll be happy to come with me, right ash ;-)???

lance has a really good friend that lives here, so that night he went to see him while bj went to an asu football game with a friend. ashley and i went and saw 'you again'. it was a cute, lighthearted movie. afterward we got froyo and chatted it up.

this morning we were sad to see them go but hopefully we will see them again soon. love you guys!!!!!!

happy birthday nick and bj!

2010-09-21T20:25:00.000-07:00

yesterday was bjs birthday and tomorrow is his younger brother, nick's. happy 25th and 20th, boys! we love you!!

its always so hard for me to decide what to get bj for his birthday. he is such a boy and doesn't like little things... only big, complicated toys. i asked him what he wanted this year and he said a gun. but he told me he didn't want me to buy the gun. i asked him to show me which one and he gave me a print out of the gun with a picture and the nearest vendors to mesa, az. really, that happened. haha. i convinced him i was not buying the gun bc i wanted to surprise him with it. that didn't work though bc i left my email up with the confirmation email on it. blah. someday i WILL surprise him, with something!

tonight our family (that lives here) came over to have cake and ice cream. bjs favorite is cookie cake but the one i made last year turned out nasty so this year i let paradise bakery make it. i am happy to say they did not disappoint.

happy birthday beejster! you're the best and i am so glad your all mine, love you!!!!

date night

2010-09-11T23:22:00.000-07:00

am i the only one who feels like we (as a couple) have endless ideas for fun dates and really good intentions to go on those dates...but life always seems to get in the way? for us, it always ends up being the same type of date weekend after weekend. movies, dinner, grilling at home, renting movies, watching sports on tv....ect. at the end of a long week the last thing we really want to do is put a ton of effort into thinking of some creative date. even though we know it would be tons of fun to do AND create great memories, we never seem to get around to it. sad. well now "we" has turned into just me because tonight beej pulled through in the fun date department.

last night bj told me he had a date planned for us on saturday night. i admit i was pretty doubtful that we would actually end up doing whatever it was he had planned. he reminded me of it again this morning and when i went to the store this afternoon he told me to be back by 6pm. when i got back he told me to put on closed toed shoes and get in the car. so i did and thirty minutes later we pulled up to indoor kart racing in Phoenix. we raced twice for 15 minutes each time and it was so much fun! the kart things got up to like 45mph. of course bj won both times but the second time i almost beat him. he said he had a different kart the second time and that it was "much slower" ;-). during the second race he was also hating some guy who kept cutting him off and running into people. so that may have distracted him a little. either way, i almost won! haha.

after we finished racing we went and ate at 5 guys burgers for dinner. SO yummy! we came home and bj pulled out some mint chocolate chip ice cream he secretly bought earlier that morning. sneaky little devil. while we ate our dessert we watched how lose a guy in 10 days. i love that movie, i swear i laugh harder every time i watch it. "so you think im some sort of CRAZY PERSON!?!?"...hahah. anyway, when the movie was almost over bj told me to go look in his dresser drawer where i found this book:

what a smarty pants. a date night scrapbook so we can turn our good intentions into real dates and keep memories about them. how cute is he??!? while we finished the movie i put our date from tonight in

i had no idea bj was putting so much thought into our date tonight. i appreciate him more than he knows. i have been feeling kinda blah lately so this was just the pick-me-up i needed. what a sweet boy.

looks like its my turn to plan the next date...i have great idea and cant wait to plan it out. stay tuned!

so long sweet summer

2010-09-06T07:05:00.000-07:00

JUNE:
-we celebrated our 3 year anniversary! yummy food, pretty jewelry and camping gear were exchanged. no pictures from this one...one day ill be better at taking pictures.

- i chopped all my hair off! I've never had short hair but i had been flirting with the idea for a while so i just did it. i have a love/hate relationship with it. bj loves my hair short but sometimes i miss a good ol' ponytail. or maybe i miss that long hair hides 2nd day grease much more effectively than short hair.

my favorite part about short hair is that its so versatile. when i blow dry and straighten it, it looks styled and cute (see above ). but if I'm feeling a lil loco and want to change my look up, i simply let it air dry and BAM! it takes on the Sean wave (see below ). don't be jealous. i mean, he was always the hot one. and of course i look equally as dreamy with the sean wave as sean did back in the day. like you even had to ask on that one.

JULY: went to Texas for a week! it was great to see my family and spend time with my mom, Liz, Tristan and Jonathan. I had not see Jonathan since my wedding 3 years ago! crazy. unfortunately, i once again forgot to take many pictures.

me and my favorite 6 year old ever! i had too much fun with this kid. i wish i could remember all of the hilarious things he said in our conversations. he is the funniest little guy ever.

at the 4th of july breakfast at the church with my beautiful sis, Liz, and Tristan. i didn't get any pics of my mom but she was there too.

while we were in Texas our dog, duke, ran away! he was at bjs parents house with bj and we think the fireworks must have scared him away. bj and his family looked all over town, put up flyer's, and called all the humane societies but they couldn't find him. bj was devastated.

a few weeks after we got home and realized duke was gone for good, we got this little guy:

toby! he is a cute little lab and we are liking him a lot. except we call him duke all the time. oops. and yes people, i realize this is our 4th dog in 4 years. we will try to be more responsible with our children. i cant make any promises though.

AUGUST: Young family reunion! everyone in bjs family had not been together for 3 years. with so many people it's hard to get everyone in one place, at one time. for a week we all ate, talked, laughed and played a lot. a good time was had by all!

what a good lookin' bunch

-in august we also went to Hawaii with these guys (al and Jeremy) for 10 days!

we stayed on the north shore of Oahu in the turtle bay condos. we went cliff jumping, Bogey boarding, lots of swimming, ate yummy food, went to pearl harbor, hiked to a waterfall, did a little snorkeling, read and did lots of laying out. Hawaii is beautiful and i am so glad we were able to go!

that's our summer in a nutshell. i didn't take any classes so it was nice to be on vacation mode for 4 months. school has started again and i am really enjoying my classes. i am happy to say i will be graduating at the end of next summer! yay! i have most definitely taken the scenic route with school but i am glad i am finishing.

well....the end!

yum.

2010-07-12T18:12:00.000-07:00

one too many buffets together........or the fatbooth app on the iphone?? you decide.

the best entertainment you will ever get for .99 cents.

do it.

not normal

2010-04-07T18:37:00.000-07:00

i am usually a big believer in "to each their own"...but i will judge you if you eat this:

KFC's new Double Down Sandwich, 1228 calories of artery clogging nastiness. yuck.

colorado and 24

2010-04-03T11:37:00.000-07:00

for my birthday weekend we flew up to Colorado to see audrie and her family. it was so much fun! audries new baby, addyson (love that name), is the most adorable baby i have ever seen. she has the prettiest eyes and she was smiley the whole time. i love her. i really hope that when bj and i have kids the Young family genes pull through because they make some very cute babies/toddlers. way cuter than the ones that you are related to. haha. just kididng. but not really. and actually, the Ingrams have great baby genes too. tristan, hayden and zealand are/were all super adorable. so really, i just hope that our kids don't get baby genes specific to me. bc i was one UGLY baby. this is a fact. im sure my family will comment on this post with the validity of that statement. i was hairy. all over. and bug eyed. and the hair that was actually on top of my head and not all over my body was really thin, wispy and always a little matted down. that phase lasted till i was 3 or 4. or maybe 13. poor, poor future babies. ill keep my fingers crossed for you.

highlights of the trip:
- chatting and laughing with aud (girl time really is the best)
-bj getting to go snowboarding
-sledding!! SO FUN.
- chance (6) wanting to shovel snow off the driveway to be like daddy. so. freaking. cute.
- kenedi and anything came out of her mouth. "thats FAIR MOM!". her fake laughing when we laughed while aud and i watched tv. the fact that when she walks she struts like she is off to somewhere very important. her dancing to chipmunks and asking bj to fill up her sippy with milk so she didn't "run out of gas". haha.
- addison the new bebe. i love her.
-there are more things to do with her kids but i will stop as to not seem like a child obsessed creeper
- making the boys watch new moon and eclipse for my birthday. muahah.
-the jcrew outlet right by audries house. jealous.
- yummy benihana and funfetti cake for my birthday.
-discovering snuggies

it was a great trip and i am really glad we went. i am excited for May when audrie and her kids are coming to stay with us for a week..right, audrie? right??? ;-).

in additional birthday news, i am now 24. and 24 sounds kind of old to me. but 24 is gonna be a good year. i can feel it.

this year i hope to
-run a half marathon. i can now run 3 miles continuously. don't judge. it used to be 3 minutes.
- a bunch of other stuff that i don't care to write out. clearly its all very important though and will definitely be accomplished
- and get pregnant!!!!!!! yes its true. and yes the only reason for this list was to say that. i can not contain myself, i am so excited. i am not off birth control quite yet..but soon-ish i will be. TMI? don't care. i will probably sing it from my rooftop the day i stop taking it. sorry about your luck neighbors.

now im off to make some cadbury mini egg chocolate cookies. those are hands down my favorite Easter candy. addictive little devils.

mom comes to visit!

2010-02-25T19:11:00.000-08:00

this past weekend Bj was in canada for work, so my mom used that opportunity to come visit me in az. it was SUCH a great weekend. much needed mom and daughter time. since we live so far away i forgot how great it is to have my mom around. i didn't forget how wonderful she is, i just forgot how nice it is to have a moms suggestions, comfort, helpful tips and laughter around. there really is nothing that compares to that good ol' motherly love. saying that i loved having her here is an understatement. i wish she would move here tomorrow. really.

we had a blast shopping, eating, laughing, having girl talk, getting pedicures, enjoying the beautiful az weather (before it got cold and rainy), seeing a moving and laughing a lot more.

highlights of the trip:
-the hobbit sweater
- my mom crying from start to finish when we saw the blind side. great movie. she loved it. i knew she would.
-shopping
-having someone around who loves sweets as much as me.
-coming home to a spotless house on monday. baseboards. blinds, fans, everything. and ALL of my laundry done. perfection.
- finding clothing that was NOT black and white ;-)
- the adorable heels we found for her at dillards that were normally $120 marked down to $29.99. turns out it does pay to have unusually small feet :-)

low lights:
-finding out how much it costs to custom frame a wedding picture at hobby lobby. i walked in thinking it would cost about $35 to frame our 16x20 wedding photo....wrong. way wrong. it would be $150. and that's half off. barf.
-only taking one picture together the whole weekend

favorite quote of the weekend:
kat: you can go ahead and shower in this bathroom.
mom: okay go out
kat: mom. you can shower with me in the same room. i have the same parts you do.
mom: yes we do. but i don't want to depress you when you see what your future holds.

hahah.

love you mom, come back soon!

New toys

2010-02-22T07:50:00.000-08:00

a few weeks ago "we" got some new toys. they are "ours", just like when i buy home decor it is for "us" :-).

bj is such a guys guy and loves all things boy. i really didn't care if he did or didn't get them but i do admit i have had more fun watching him with them than i thought it would. he is so dang cute with how excited he gets about going out on them and getting all the accessories for them.

last week bj and i went out so he could show me how to ride "my" quad (the sliver one). i have been on one a few times before but in my family there are 4 girls and only 1 boy so we didn't really do these kind of things that often. i wasn't expecting it to be lame but i had no idea it would be so much fun! i was probably going super slow bc its a new thing for me and i was nervous but bj was so patient and was happy we were just out playing together. we played hide and seek on the quads and that was one of my favorite parts. except when bjs hiding spot was way better than mine. haha.

here they are:
ps check out that beautiful scenery, i love where i live.

bj with the toys

after hide and seek we found this little baby jump and bj taught me jump over it. he is a pro and had no problem clearing it.

this is my first try...try to ignore how incredibly attractive i look. i know it may be distracting for some.

this is after a little practicing. ignore bjs doubting commentary in the background...i think i'm a natural ;-)

love day

2010-02-17T08:07:00.000-08:00

i love valentines day. i love that its whole purpose is a celebration of love. and i love it because its the day bj proposed to me :-). every valentines we go eat at Maggiano's little italy and as usual, it was delish. their cheesecake is super yummy so we got it to go because we were both too stuffed to eat anymore. after dinner we made our way to the hotel suite bj booked for us to stay in that night.

bj booked our hotel online, so neither of us had actually seen it before....and our hotel "suite" didnt end up being quite what we thought it would be. the street we stayed on had 3 or 4 hotels right next to each other. so, we pulled up to the hotel we thought we were staying at and it looked great. i was so excited to get out and find our room! then we realized we were at the wrong place. ours was the hotel next door. so im thinking, oohh okay im sure it will be great too. we drive over to the correct hotel. hmm. it looks a little dingy but im sure the inside will be beautiful. we get our things and go in. not quite the plush hotel we were imagining. hmm. im sure its fine, maybe the lobby is just a little outdated and the employees are aloud to have wrinkled clothes. sure. check in, walk upstairs. sweet 1980s carpet on the way up. our room will be great though, im sure. walk inside....and no, it wasn't so great. it was just like the rest of the hotel. it wasn't a cheap room and it was in a nice area so we just stood there a little confused. it was already paid for though, so we got over it and made ourselves comfortable. i wish i could remember exactly what the description of the "suite" was on the website bc as we were walking through the room bj was quoting it to me and i was laughing so hard!! the descriptions could not have been further from what was actually in front of us.

an obviously pleased bj showing off our room

and here she is

the modern popcorn ceiling

the huge bathtub..

one thing i DID love were the mirrors!! you knows those mirrors that make you look like a much taller, more slender version of yourself?? they had these all over the place. and i loved them.

bj showing the huge tv that was slightly bigger than his hand

sweet furniture

and it wouldn't be a holiday if bj didn't ruin a perfectly good picture

despite the hotel mishap it was a really great valentines day. we got to laugh about the hotel all night and morning...and it still makes me laughing just thinking about it. haha. it was also kinda fun to just spend the night away from home.... even though we knew our bed at home was more comfortable :-). bj gave me some really pretty earrings and i gave him a nice pen with his initials engraved on it (that still has not come in the mail yet..what the crap).

thanks for making it a very memorable and special valentines, beej. love you!

meet your meat???

2009-11-20T09:13:00.000-08:00

i know, i know.... soon i will post about something real. hopefully. a little while back i decided i was going to start blogging a lot more so i could make a book out of my blog....and it seems like as soon as i decided to do that, i stopped blogging. interesting how that happens. anyway, this post is probably not interesting to most of you so feel free to stop reading, i just wanted to get some feed back on this subject.

a few days ago i was blog browsing and somehow ended up on this website
http://venividiveganed.blogspot.com/ . its a vegan cooking blog. she is lds. it sparked my interest bc a while back i was a vegetarian for like 6 months. i read a book about it, it grossed me out and i couldn't eat meat. then summer sales started for bj and due the the lack of cooking during those months, i slowly started eating meat again. now i eat meat fine. in fact last night i had a red robin hamburger. yum. from time to time i will remember the gross details in the book and will go a week or so without eating it or something. but nothing consistent.

in addition to that though, what about the word of wisdom??? "eat meat sparingly". i know my sister in laws and i have talked about this subject before and we never really came to a solid conclusion on what it means. or at least in my head its still kinda cloudy. does it mean sparingly in comparison to what general population eats? bc over 50% of our nation is obese. or what about "in winter or famine only"....hmmm again, if 50% of our nation is obese, I'm pretty sure there is no famine going on in my neighborhood. or yours. is that part of the word of wisdom more important than what we give it credit for, but sometimes we don't give it a second thought because consuming meat is so much a part of our cultures diet??? red meat and processed lunch meats are the leading causes of colon cancer, at least according to Dr. Oz :-). coincidence???

these are some of the quotes she put on her blog

*John A. Widtsoe, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, wrote in a book on the Word of Wisdom, "It was shown in the history of plant science that plants contain all the necessary food substances: proteins, fats, starches and the carbohydrates, minerals...water [and] vitamins. The Great builder of the earth provided well for the physical needs of His children. Countless varieties of edible plants, vegetables, cereals, fruits and nuts are yielded by Mother Nature for man's daily food. If one uses meat it must be used sparingly and in winter or famine only.... They who wish to be well and gain the promised reward stated in the Word of Wisdom must obey all of the law, not just part of it as suits their whim or their appetite, or their notion of its meaning." (The Word of Wisdom, a Modern Interpretation, 1950)

*Elder Benson "To a significant degree, we are an overfed and undernourished nation digging an early grave with our teeth, and lacking the energy that could be ours.... We need a generation of young people who, as Daniel, eat in a more healthy manner than to fare on the 'kings meat' ---and whose countenances show it." (Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson pp. 476-7) His reference, of course, is to the biblical Daniel who, as a student in the Babylonian royal court, opted for simple vegetarian food and whose superior health quickly became visible to others. See Daniel, Chapter 1 in the Old Testament or the wonderful account in Antiquities of the Jews by Josephus, Book 10, Chapter 10, verses 1-2 for details." -quoted from Jim Catano

*"Flesh also of beasts and of the fowls of the air, I, the Lord, have ordained for the use of man with thanksgiving; nevertheless they are to be used sparingly; And it is pleasing unto me that they should not be used, only in times of winter, or of cold, or famine" (D&C 89:12-13

*"Blood shall not be shed, only for meat, to save your lives; and the blood of every beast will I require at your hands" (JST Gen. 9:11).

she also had this video on there....its pretty gross. interesting though.

lately i've just been thinking about this topic in general. i am not saying one way or the other is right or wrong. just curious and trying to figure out how i feel about the subject. bj pointed out that unless we look it up, we don't know the exact context of those quotes , so it doesn't necessarily mean they are directed to us right now. with the video too, the makers of the video obviously have a strong opinion about what they are sharing so they are using evidence that supports their opinion. that doesn't mean its the norm in the industry or that there isn't a flip side to what they are showing.

anyway, insights? opinions? thoughts??? anyone out there know the right answer??? do tell.

ps-pretty good timing with thanksgiving right around the corner, eh?? my bad.

off white

2009-11-08T21:07:00.000-08:00

conversation yesterday morning:

kat: i think we are supposed to be there at 12:30 to get our class ready for the primary program. right?
bj: yea i dont know. i think so. your shirt looks dirty and dingy.
kat: oh okay. wait, what?
bj: nothing.
kat: did you say my shirt looks dirty and dingy?
bj: um. yes. and it does. those white shirts of yours get dirty so fast
kat: bj my shirt is off white.
bj: we should really buy you some more of those white undershirts you use so often
kat: i said my shirt is OFF white bj. its cream. its supposed to look like this.
bj:. oh. well its kinda ugly.

lol....gotta appreciate the boys honesty ;-).

*and yes, shortly after this conversation i changed into my actual white shirt. not because i agreed, but because i didn't want the whole ward to think i was wearing a dirty shirt when in fact my shirt was just off white. OFF WHITE.

girls weekend

2009-10-21T16:05:00.000-07:00

ashley, heather and virg came down from utah to visit us this weekend. it was SO much fun! we talked, laughed a lot, shopped, ate, played games, and talked some more. it was the first time i have stayed up past 1:00 am in a looonnng time. the only bummer part about the weekend was that it was HOT. i have been/am trying to convince heather and nick to come to medical school here, and this weekends 104 degree weather didn't really help my case. and of course, the day after she goes back to utah the amazing weather decides to come back.

it was such a fun weekend and i cant wait to see those 3 girls again, hopefully soon!

fall dip

2009-10-19T09:31:00.001-07:00

this weekend i made this yummy dip. its perfect for this time of year and was sooo easy to make. i have only had it with apples but it would be good on bread, ginger bread cookies, gram cracks or other fruit too. actually anything. its delicious.

yummy pumpkin dip

1 package of cream cheese

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1/2 cup pumpkin pie filling

1 tsp vanilla

mix until creamy and smooth. enjoy!

bragging rights

2009-10-06T07:10:00.000-07:00

excuse me for a second but im going brag about some of the talented people im related to. my wonderful sister (basically) heather took some pictures of my beautiful sister virg. they turned out amazing. they are so fun, creative and TOTALLY fit virg.

so if you are in the utah area and are looking for an amazing photographer go to

http://heatherannettephotography.blogspot.com/

she has such good prices, takes great pictures AND will have you laughing the whole time! you cant beat that really.

also if you are in the utah area and are lookin for a single hottie call 940-595-......juuuust kidding virg! haha. but for real she is on my blog list.... just sayin :-)

anyway, here they are! hot dang, im related to some very talented and beautiful people!

these are a few of my favorite things....

2009-10-03T12:43:00.001-07:00

lately i've been loving....

1. my magic bullet! it helps me make yummy healthy smoothies every morning, without the clean up of a normal blender. yuck.

2. roasted red pepper hummus. with sliced up cucumber or peppers it makes a perfect healthy snack. yum.

3. mayday parade. they are a band that ashley recently introduced me to and i really like them. i guess they have been around for a while but i am just finding out about them. i tend to not find out about "cool" stuff until years after it comes out. so if anyone out there further outside the loop than i, here is a great "new" band you will like.

4. my pink kitchen aid mixer. oh wait...i don't have this. yet. christmas is coming up. what a coincidence. hint, hint beej ;-). 5. my swivel sweeper. truly heaven sent. it makes cleaning up so much easier. if you don't have one, you should.

5. duke. i love this little guy. what a smart, sweet, quiet, lovable puppy.

and uuuhh...not so much moose. for obvious reasons. anyone want a dog? he is for sale. pure bred chocolate lab. slightly special. ill take $50 or your best offer.... and i have zero offers, so try me. i beg of you.

yum.

2009-09-25T13:10:00.000-07:00

a friend gave me this recipe and it has become one of our favorites. super quick and easy. try it out, you wont regret it, i promise :-)

Spicy Broccoli and Sausage Pasta

12oz small pasta (farfalle or penne. i use farfalle)
3 tbsp olive oil
1lb ground sweet chicken sausage (can be found at any local health food store)
3 garlic cloves minced
1 pinch dried crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 TSP pepper
3 heads of broccoli

In large pot bring salted water to boil. Add broccoli and cook 2 min. Remove broccoli, set aside. Cook pasta in same water. Drain and save 1 cup of liquid. In large pan brown sausage in oil. Add garlic and red pepper, saute 30 seconds. Add broccoli, pasta and 1/4 cup liquid, or more as needed. Stir in cheese and salt to taste. Enjoy!

i serve it with garlic bread it and bj loves it. this recipe makes a ton but it makes really great left overs too.

TIP: it seems odd to cook meat in oil right? or at least it did to me. the chicken sausage produces almost zero oil when you cook it, and the olive oil its cooked in has tons of flavor once the meat is cooked and the garlic and red pepper are sauteed in. along with 1/4 cup of liquid, the oil serves as the sauce when you add the broccoli and noodles to it. ALSO, if you don't feel like going to a health food store to get chicken sausage, you can buy sweet turkey sausage at any store and it works fine. its a tad bit greasier and i have found it usually doesn't come ground up already, but it will work fine in the end.

happy happy birthday!

2009-09-20T20:40:00.000-07:00

happy 24th beej! i am so glad that today your little 4 lb body came into this world and survived! youre the best and i love you!!!!

we started the day off with a long bike ride, we watched a lot of football and then bjs family came over for dinner. bj got an iphone for his birthday and is LOVING it.

i forgot to buy candles...so here he is blowing out his lone candle.

i had to put this picture up bc bj just looks unbelievably handsome in it. oh wait, no he does not...i had to put it up bc im hoping if i put enough bad pictures up of bj he will stop trying to ruin every picture i take of him. turd ;-)

GOGIRL!!!!!

2009-09-13T12:11:00.000-07:00

bj is ALWAYS talking about little little inventions that would make life easier or little contraptions he wants to have that don't currently exist. one time we watched a thing on tv about a woman who invented some stupid cake slice holder thing and now she is a millionaire. so anyway, when bj starts telling me about some invention he has in his head, for me its fun to hear bc most of the time the concepts are good and its fun to hear how his mind works.

there is a story about bj that his whole family laughs at- when bj was younger he would always say camping would be amazing if there were air conditioners you could take with you into a tent. so he decided to try it and make his own version of this invention...i don't remember the details of what happened next but i think it involved a cooler, a fan, dry ice...and maybe a few other things. and yes, it cooled the tent...while also being toxic to the person in the tent. or something like that. needless to say, that idea wasn't exactly a money maker ;-)

the last time we went camping bj and his cousin jeremy talked (for hours) about " a funnel type thing" that they were going to invent for girls to make going pee while your standing/squatting easier. they said it would be mainly for camping but that girls could really take it anywhere if they wanted. they talked about how simple the actual product would have to be it would be to make and how unbelievability use full it would be for women who have to go when here is no bathroom around. it would be disposable and EVERYONE would buy it bc it would make camping for girls so much easier! ally and i laughed and thought it was a good idea, but maybe not that good.

i was on my lunch break at work the other day when a clip on this new product was featured.

http://www.go-girl.com/

the same exact product. whoever owns the company just started marketing it. they are calling it a "new spin on an old idea". the news caster guy said "its all the rage in Europe and overseas".

uhhh....ooopsie. there goes our millions.

i think next time ill try to be a little more supportive of bjs "silly ideas" :-)

freezer jam

2009-09-08T18:44:00.000-07:00

i made homemade jam for the first time the other day and it was so easy! i expected it to be long and complicated but it was so far from that. it tastes so much better than store bought and is good for short term food storage.

i tried out two recipes and they both turned out DELISH. with the first recipe i made only strawberry. with the seond i made strawberry, blackberry and peach and they all turned out so yummy! as far as the recipes go i prefer the second, but only because it uses less sugar and is a little thicker. make both and decide for yourself!

1. recipe from http://just-cook-already.blogspot.com/ (thanks jenna :-)! )

*2 cups pureed strawberries
*4 cups sugar
*2 TBSP lemon juice
*1 package powdered pectin
*3/4 cup water

In a large bowl, combine strawberries, sugar & lemon juice. Let sit 10 minutes. Meanwhile in a small sauce pan- bring water to a boil. Add pectin. Bring back to a boil. Cook at hard boil for 1 minute. Pour pectin mixture into strawberries. Stir until sugar is all dissolved. (i usually feel it between my fingers till it is no longer grainy) Pour into washed & dried containers, either glass or plastic, store in the freezer up to 1 year or in the fridge for 1 month.

2. recipe off back of "Ball" brand fruit pectin box

*1 package of ball brand fruit pectin
*your favorite fresh or frozen fruit to yield 4 cups crushed
*1 and 1/2 cup sugar

stir sugar and contents of fruit pectin package in a bowl until well blended. stir in 4 cups crushed fruit. stir 3 minutes longer. ladle jam into clean jars. let stand 30 min to thicken. store in freezer up to a year or the fridge for 1 month.

aloha and mahalo.

2009-09-05T13:51:00.000-07:00

Hawaii was a blast. in the months leading up to Ashley's wedding, i came to terms with the fact that i would not be attending. BUT a few weeks shy of the big day my sweet sweet husband surprised me with tickets to go!! what a gem he is :-).

in mixed up order, here are a ton of pictures from our trip:

all the bridesmaids

smirge and imom and pops coslett us with nick and heather, we love these guys!

we played tons of sand volleyball while we were there, so fun!

Ashley's beautiful dress

pretty kona temple

the newlyweds!

lava....we hiked through a lava rock field and were so close to the lava. scariest 2 hours of my life. for real.

waterfalls

black sand beaches

pretty cliffs

beej and ceej before our LONG day trip in the jeep. emphasis on long.

us before the wedding

virg ash and kat hanging out

our feet....and bjs awesome flip flop tan line if you look close enough. hah.

ooooohhhweeee hottie!

boo for ugly lava hike
hooray for pretty beaches the ugly lava led us to ! this beach is voted one of the prettiest in the world.

funny.

turtles!

at the airport on the way TO hawaii.

the wedding was beautiful and i am so happy for my Ashley. i loved getting to experience a whole new place and that we were able to be there with so many people we love. especially since virg was there. the cosletts were were such great hosts to us and cooked so many wonderful meals, including breakfast every morning. it was fabulous.

the cosletts are mine and virgs second family and it was so fun to be on vacation with them. for me, it was really neat to watch bj interact with their family, and especially with the coslett men (jerry nick and cj.). bj only met them a few times prior to the trip, but you never would have known! he was treated like family right away. there was none of that awkward "don't really know each other" bull with them. even though they are each so different, they all gelled with bj right away and i love that. i am sure it would have been like that with Ashley's new husband, lance, but we hardly saw those little love birds after their wedding day. hmmm... weird ;-).

it was a really great trip and i am so grateful for my hubs who knew just how important being at Ashley's wedding was to me :-). we cant wait to go back!

aloha!

funny.

2009-08-31T17:53:00.001-07:00

So in my diversity in education class, i sit next to a girl named brianna who is 18 years old, fresh out of high school and is about to get engaged. she is really nice and is always chatting it up with me. she is LDS too by the way. today our convo went something like this:

brianna: oooh pretty ring
kat: thanks!
brianna: how long have you been married?
kat: a little over two years
brianna: wow! and your 23 right?
kat: yea i am

about 5 or 10 min pass as the teacher is lecturing. then i feel a tap on my shoulder.

brianna: sooo, i dont mean to pry but like do you guys want kids at all? or are you just never going to have them????
kat: no we do want them, we just took a while off school so we want to get a little closer to finishing school before we start trying
brianna: OH! okay. sheesh, i was worried about you for a minute.

haha! it turns out even people not related to us are worried we will never start having children ;-)

GOOD LUCK Virgilicious!!!!!!!!

2009-07-24T09:50:00.000-07:00

today my beautiful sister virg runs her first marathon! i wish i could be there to cheer lead for her as she crosses the finish line...but since i cant, here is my best effort from afar :-)

go virg, go virg, go go go ....your going to do so great today! seriously. i envy your endurance and i am so proud of you for doing this, maybe next time ill join (or not) :-). good luck today, I LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!

Done and Done.

2009-07-10T14:06:00.000-07:00

project of the day: paint this beast that's been staring at me for the past 6 months, the only part of our house left to paint.

it started out great...only fearing for my life a few times while on the tall ladder....and then came the part of cutting in the ceiling on the left wall, that has stairs under it...

.... hmmmm, what to do, what to do?....the stairs make it impossible use a ladder.....

....time to improvise.....

...the wise man built his house upon sand...no?

... i only feared for my life EVERY SINGLE SECOND of standing on the very top of that ladder .......while visions of the cooler, books, the ladder, the paint can and me tumbling down the stairs raced through my head...

....but alas, nothing tumbled and its all finished, hooray!!

camping in prescott

2009-06-30T08:18:00.001-07:00

This weekend we went camping in prescott with al and jeremy. it was was my first "real" camping experience, meaning no bathrooms. i had to walk a quarter mile to go to the bathroom in the bushes, but i have to say it wasn't that bad.

when we first got there, i saw al and jeremy setting up their tent and it was the typical blue/grey square shaped tent. i expected ours to be the same. when bj started getting out his tent i laughed so hard! you cant tell from this picture but bjs is small and a skinny rectangle shape.... and its purple. he defended it saying that it is super lightweight for times when we backpack 10 miles during the day with the tent on our back (hopefully that never actually happens). he claims its a grey tent with "purple trimmings" .....whatever you say beej ;-).

this is us on our supposed to be "2 mile hike". the guys at the camp site next to ours told us that the lake was about a 2 mile hike away. they were a little drunk so that should of been our first clue that their prediction may not be accurate. round trip it ended up being about an 8 mile hike, which wasn't so bad bc the weather was so nice.

these guys had so much fun. the hike wore their paws out and they could hardly get around the next day.

it was a really fun trip with GREAT weather. bj was totally in his element and loved every second of it. his dream vacation is probably something along the lines of man vs wild, while mine is somewhere with a beach and a mall in close range. hopefully next time we will meet in the middle and simply have bathrooms near by :-)

happy fathers day!

2009-06-22T08:48:00.000-07:00

happy fathers day to the three men in my life.

dad- your the best. i love our chats and that we continue to grow closer as i get older. i love your laid back style. i love the memories i have with you of us playing softball, or you teaching me correct form on my diving skills. i loved that you played with me and taught me its okay to get dirty. i love that you have always really believed i could be whatever i wanted, from an Olympic gymnast to a pro diver. and bc of your confidence in me, until a few years ago i still thought some of those things were possible. haha. i have since come to terms with some of my limitations, but you taught me to always believe in my abilities and strength. thank you for never letting me settle for less than you knew i deserved. love you.

dad young- thank you for doing such a good job at raising bj to be the man he is today. when we were dating he would always quote three things you taught him about how to treat his wife, and i am so grateful he had such a wonderful example of a man to look up to growing up. bj never fails to spoil me and i know its because of your example. i love that you taught bj how to do/fix practically anything, and that he will be able to teach our kids the same things. i love that you play hard with with all the grand kids and cant wait for you to play with ours someday. i am lucky to have such a wonderful father in law like you. i love you!

bj- you are going to be the best dad. your such a natural with children. i cant count the times little kids have liked you way more than they liked me. bad sign for me? haha. i love your sensitive spirit and cant wait to see you turn into mush in our little babies hands :-). love you.

ps- no bj and i are not pregnant.

2 years!

2009-06-18T11:00:00.000-07:00

on June 1st bj and i celebrated our 2 year anniversary!

i came home to a beautiful bouquet of stargazer Lillie's (my favorite) and a sweet note printed on one of our wedding pictures.

we went to Scottsdale and ate at one of our favorite Italian restaurants- maggianos. it was fun to talk about what the past two years together have brought us. 4 apts, 3 dogs, 2 schools, 1 house, 0 arguments...haha juuuust kidding on that last one ;-). i think we both have learned so much from each other these past 2 years and i cant wait to see what the next few years bring us. i love you bj!

cute boy

2009-04-26T10:32:00.001-07:00

tristan and i were upstairs trying to figure out how to fix this hand held game thing he has and he was standing the most adorable way the whole time we were talking...so i had to snap a pic.

i mean really, what 4 year old stands like an old man trying to figure out some problem. how stinkin cute. im sure gonna miss this boy!

anyone still reading this????

2009-04-19T19:52:00.001-07:00

if so, we are still alive dont worry.

life is good. bj is liking his job here and i started a new job about a month and a half ago at a doctors office and i really like it. plus its a medical "group" so we have 2 dentists, 3 chiropractors, 2 doctors , a dermatologist who also does laser hair removal and they are looking to continue growing. i work in the family practice office, but that means i get all of the other services free or almost free. so even if i hated it, i am pretty sure i would really like it. bj suggested they should hire someone who does plastic surgery, ie boob jobs..... "only bc its such a big thing here in the valley"....right. nice cover up beej.

tristan is good too. still alive... even after consuming all of his easter candy (15 eggs FULL of candy PLUS a chocolate bunny) in a mere 24 hours. record time. and now i know when we have kids to monitor their holiday candy intake. i just didnt see the harm in letting him keep his easter basket in his room. i guess i am a slow learner.

anyway....i will blog a real post soon. until then...goodnight!

oh moose.

2009-03-22T10:56:00.000-07:00

dog or horse????

the aftermath. nice.

WHAT?!

2009-03-20T14:33:00.000-07:00

today i went to the Kraft website to sign my sister in law up for the wonderful FREE family and foods magazine i receive. i was shocked to find THIS:

https://w1.buysub.com/pubs/MR/KFF/ff_sub_page.jsp?cds_page_id=60672&cds_mag_code=KFF&id=1237584753090&lsid=90791632330056416&vid=1

is it true!? they have started charging?! why am i still getting mine for free? or am i just trying to sign her up in the wrong place????

please help. thank you.

ps- did anyone make that cheesecake layer pudding pound cake thing on the cover of the most recent issue? it looked SO good on the magazine. and when i made it it was GROSS. happen to anyone else????

BIKE!

2009-03-17T21:09:00.000-07:00

bj works a lot with foreclosure's and when the houses he works with are cleaned out, he sometimes finds stuff worth bringing home. he and jeremy had been looking for a bike for tristan in the houses and on saturday jeremy found one! its spiderman and everything. last night bj got new tubes for the tires and we surprised tristan with it. he seriously could not have been happier. it was the cutest thing i have ever seen. he had a big smile plastered to his face the rest of the night. it was awesome.

its also a good thing bc now that means i can go running in the evenings while he rides his bike. a few weeks ago i tried to go jogging WITH him thinking a mile wouldnt be a big deal. i know, but the guys (i should of known better than to ask them) at my work said that they were SURE a 4 year old could run a mile. hmmm. didnt quite work out. we ended up walking and playing in the dirt.

anyway, i am work so this has to be short but i will post more about our fun fun weekend in colorado later.

Lehi days rodeo!

2009-03-07T15:14:00.000-08:00

today t and i went to the 'lehi days rodeo' here in mesa. my bosses ward sponsors it so we went to check it out. we enjoyed a petting zoo, riding ponies, a chicken chase and waay too much sugary food.

he loved every part of the petting zoo. baby chicks (which by the way are HIDEOUS creatures when they are full grown), rabbits, a huge turtle, some ducks, a goat and a baby cow.

There was a thing called "the chicken chase" that all of the kids were able to participate in. when his age group was called they all lined up and when the whistle blew, a few baby chicks were released for the kids to catch. the lucky kids who caught the chicks got to take them home.

tristan is a taller than most the kids his age. i was hoping this wouldnt mean he was faster than most of the kids too.... enabling him to get to a chick first. silly katherine, of course it makes him faster. so, meet blackie - our new chick:

T showing off his new chick to the kids. ill admit i was a little proud.

My boss lives on a farm so monday blackie will relocate to his house and we will just go visit him on occasion. thankfully after i told tristan how dogs like to eat chickens for dinner he was very okay with blackie leaving. the first thing he said when we walked in the back yard was "DUKE, BLACKIE IS NOT FOR DINNER".

haha. he really is hilarious. this morning when i walked out he said

"oh, you look pretty today. blue and blue. you match"

i wanted to ask him if he thought i normally didnt match but i remembered i shouldnt take clothing advice from a 4 year old.

the other day i was about to go to work wearing a cream shirt with black shorts. here was our convo

kat: do i look okay?

tristan: you dont really match. maybe a different shirt

so i changed into a bright purple shirt.
kat: now do i look okay?

tristan: umm...do you have any purple pants too??? they would look better.

and thats when i decided to stop taking fashion advice from a 4 year old. probably a good idea.

and this is just us goofing around with the timer on the camera today. as you can see, it was a beautiful outfit. blue and blue...gotta keep that in mind.

DEAR HEATHER,

2009-03-04T17:49:00.001-08:00

I AM SORRY TO HEAR ABOUT YOUR SUCKY WEATHER IN UTAH. I JUST RECEIVED SOME EVIDENCE AS TO WHY YOU AND NICK SHOULD GO TO MEDICAL SCHOOL HERE AND IT WAS TOO OVERWHELMING TO NOT SHARE:

LOOKIN GOOD EH? AGAIN, I AM SORRY ABOUT YOUR WEATHER.

WARM AND TOASTY WISHES,
KAT

hmm.

2009-03-04T17:36:00.000-08:00

seriously??? who makes only their side of the bed in the morning????

the man who may or may not have done this may not get beat up by his wife tonight.

the bachelor (did you really think i wouldnt?)

2009-02-24T08:02:00.000-08:00

my vote:

Molly.

sorry all you Melissa lovers but i think molly is going to take the cake. this may change during the last episode but from events thus far i think Melissa will get the ax.

PS- the tell all episode was whatever, i am ready for next week already. and was it just me or is Natalie a big fat CRAZY???

a few of my favorite quotes from her:

jason: tell me something real about you. something under all of the sports and clothes

nat: ummm...i LOVE bears. i really really do.
jason: like koala bears???
nat: no, just in general.

"i mean look at me. i am VERY attractive. who does he think he is, GOD?"

oh gosh... she is crazy. and the things she was saying last night didn't even make sense.

i cannot wait until next week.

Tristan-isms

2009-02-21T15:56:00.000-08:00

tristan: whats in gum???
kat: (reading off the package) blah blah blah....i dont know. a bunch of weird stuff.

i put down the gum package not thinking anything of it. i look at him and he has a confused look on his face while slowly removing the gum from his mouth

kat: (laughing) No no no no no. it is just stuff i dont recognize . its okay to eat though.
tristan: (while giving me a suspicious look) okay.....

a few seconds later sheepishly is trying to find somewhere to put his gum.

kat: are you throwing your gum away?
tristan: umm...no

he puts the gum back in his mouth really fast but for the rest of the ride home, about 10 min, he does not chew it. just lets it sit there. it was soon forgotten though, the next day he promptly asked me for a piece of gum when i picked him up from school.
****
bj: do you have a bike buddy?
tristan: no
bj:oh. do you know how to ride one?
tristan: no. but if you want to get one for me, thats okay with me you know.
****
kat: go put these clothes up in your room
tristan: ahhh i cant. my legs are broken
kat: okay but if you dont finish your chores you cant watch cartoons, remember?
tristan: ummm....i can still crawl, you know.
****
there are so many more but i cant remember them all right now. he is so funny. he is always saying "you know" at the end of every sentence. not as in the question "...you know???" but more like an informative "you know". i kept wondering where he got it from until i was talking to my mom the other day on the phone and heard her say it so many times. so funny what kids pick up on.

he is always asking why, which is funny in itself bc its so...cliche? i dont know. just like something off the movies. if i drink water, he wants to know why. bc im thirsty. why? bc i went running. why? bc i ate too many cookies. why? bc im a hungry girl. why? i was born that way. why?.....and really, i dont even notice most of the time....except sometimes i dont know the answer. but dont worry, i make something up real quick that sounds good ;-)

oh yea i forgot to brag. bj and i actually got the 'best parents of the year' award yesterday. so soon, i know. how did we manage? easy. yesterday during out first run-in with a FULL BLOWN kicking screaming temper tantrum, bj kindly told him if he broke anything in the car he could sleep outside with the dogs... and i called him by the wrong name. nice. trying to be stern and call him by his full name, i gracefully said "tristan (long pause to think of his middle name) LEWIS ..YOUNG! i mean INGRAM!!!".

ahhh yes. quite amazing we could do so well in such a short amount of time.

The Bachelor

2009-02-10T07:37:00.000-08:00

I love my huband but I think this guy has a tiny part of my heart too.

I thoroughly enjoyed the bachelor last night. I am very happy that Naomi was eliminated. She was okay but I think Jason only really liked her bc she looks like Eva Mendes.

need I say more?

They didn't seem to have real chemistry or something. I really like the 3 remaining girls and I cant decide who I want eliminated next. I cant WAIT until the episode where the girl from last years bachelor comes back!!!! I didn't watch it last year but it still looks so good.

A few of my favorite parts from last night:

1. the eulogy that Niomis mom made Jason give at the dead birds funeral. I was embarrassed for her.

2. The hula hooping at Naomi's parents. that whole segment at her house was pretty entertaining actually.

3. The part when Melissa introduced Jason to her friends Joe and Stephanie - bc i know them! well okay I have met them once. Bjs best friend married into Joe's family. I still got really excited though.

4. When Naomi was eliminated she told Molly and Jillian she loved them and all she said to Melissa was "good luck". Its okay though bc I have the same feeling about her being eliminated next too.

5. The preview for next week. And the preview where the old girl comes back and makes Jason cry. I cant wait.

And of course tonight is:

There really was a time when if someone asked what shows I watched I replied "Oh, I don't really watch T.V", and it was actually true. I think its safe to say those days are over.