Home Sweet New York

Maddox and I were lucky enough to spend last week in New York City. We've conquered the city together before, but we thought we'd try it this time in another season! The weather simply couldn't have been better. Clear skies and 70s.

 Maddox and his first taxi ride! He is such a great traveler. He embraces new experiences and I love that!

 Our friends were nice enough to let us stay with them. Madds LOVED these girls and they loved him too. It was good practice for when they become big sisters in just a couple weeks! 

Neither Kristy or I had been to the new 9|11 Memorial so we thought we'd check it out before her midwife appt that was nearby. The place is so stunning. The vastness of the memorial in such a crowded party of the city made it even more breathtaking. The spirit that was there was beautiful. The design of everything from the footprint reflecting pools to the new museum to the landscape. Everything was so thought out and executed perfectly.

 While we were pondering and appreciating the memorial I leisurely rested my hand on the surrounding of one of the pools. (Why did I think I could touch it?!) And my darn bracelet slipped into a "B" of Albert Balewa Blackman, Jr.'s inscribed name. We tried so hard to get it out, Kristy swears if she had her crochet gear she would have been able to get it free but my brute strength was the only thing that worked. I was able to break one of the links to free my bracelet but part of it still remains. As horrible as I felt for defacing this sacred memorial, it will be fun to see if it's still there next time we visit.

 One night I was able to tuck Maddox in and escape off to visit with a friend. It was so fun to enjoy my old hood and the incredible views it delivers but it was soo great catching up with Morgan. I miss her! 

 One day Maddox and I went to the office and visited with all my co-workers. How I love them so! Then a couple of us went to lunch.

 Can you guess who Maddox deemed his favorite? This child doesn't even give me this much love people! Darrin and I had planned to spend the afternoon at a showhouse that DDA designed a room in. I was especially excited to see it because I had been working on all the graphic stuff weeks prior. BUT we arrived and were informed there were no kids allowed. I mean obviously you don't want to mix kids with luxury goods but he had just fallen asleep and wouldn't have made his presence known one bit! I was so disappointed!!

We came up with another plan and I got over it pretty quick because how down can you be when you're spending the afternoon in Central Park? Miss Linda Lavin herself brought her dog over to say hi to Maddox and we dialoged for a good 10 minutes!

So then the much awaited day arrived! A baby shower for my bestie! It was at Alice's Tea Cup, in a private room, with 25 of her nearest and dearest. The place settings were fancy, the scones and cream were fancy the sandwiches were fancy and to keep with the fancy theme I chose chocolate milk for my teacup :) It was a really great party and I felt so lucky to be there.

I'm telling you, this kid is the best travel buddy. He naps on the go, smiles at the strangers and lets me shop shop shop. We had a great time together. Something about taking trips alone together bonds us so much closer. I love this little guy and it was so fun to see all my NY friends love on him too. Until next time New York...

Eleven Months

LOVES

You can stand all by your self! It's so cute to watch you balance and get as excited as we are!

You've been playing with Albani like every day this month. It has been so fun watching you two together.

In your own sort of way you can blow kisses.Grandma loves to receive them through skype!

You love to flip the light switches on and off. 

Without any teaching from you, you started putting your play phone to your ear. Oh my gosh, it is so cute!

I sort of gave up on sign language a couple months ago, I didn't think you were getting it but this month you've started grabbing at my shirt and signing for milk. You smarty pants!

I love that you like to feed me your treats. So good at sharing.

You've become our little copycat. You love to mimic us brushing our teeth, brushing my hair, and rubbing lotion in your hands. I love watching you learn!

You have been obsessed with Brown Bear, Brown Bear. You know right where it is and throw such a fit when I put it down after we're finished reading it (for the fourth time in a row!)

As I was trying to fold laundry, you found one of my silky garment tops and carried it around with you for hours. Silly!

HATES 
You have become quite the messy eater my boy. 

You might be getting more teeth because you won't stop biting me! Not while I'm nursing (thank you!) but my arms and legs. It hurts Madds!

11 months is weird. It is so close to 12 that that's all I can think about!! 

Love you boy boy!!

House of Hues

It is so fun when a project that I've worked on gets published, it's like a bit of my passion gets to be shared with the world. You can't have a project this amazing without incredible clients that give you free reign of the design. When they say "I want every color" you know you're in for a fun ride.

I think I end every design post like this but...

I love my job.

Ten Months Old

LOVES

You have discovered the toilet paper. Anytime I leave you playing and it has been silent too long, I can always find you playing with the toilet paper.

Finally you now say mama! I am not sure you connect the words with their meaning yet but I love hearing you say it anyway.

I'm afraid we are heading into the end of your crawling days. You move around so well on objects throughout the house, but your balance needs some work. Take your time, stay my little baby for a bit longer!

Another fun game you've learned is to open your drawers and pull out all of your clothes. 

You love to play with your cousin Kruz. He lets you wrestle him, it is so cute.

Your missing tooth on the bottom has made its appearance bringing your total to 8 teeth!

I wish I could bottle up all these sounds you're learning to make. My favorite lately is clucking with your tongue.

HATES

We went on a two day roadtrip and it's safe to say you hated it 75% of the time. You did like when Dad and I would sing to you so we made fools of ourselves to keep you entertained.

You got sick for the first time. A scary 103 fever and mucus. Oh the mucus. We felt so bad for you. The antibiotics kicked in quickly and you were better in a couple days, only then to get a yeast infection from the meds. Poor poor boy.

I can't believe you're in the double digit months, you're growing up so fast! It is so fun to watch you learn and you get so excited when you accomplish new things. We love you bubby!!

Our Casa!!

 It has been three years in the making. In 2009 we were visiting from New York and my parents suggested we go to the parade of homes and check out this fun community called Daybreak. I think it was the third house on our tour. As soon as we left I told Tyler that when we moved back to Utah, this is where we'd be living and in that house! I then became slightly obsessed, designing the whole thing and just living there in my mind. So upon our return to Utah we knew we had a baby on the way and Tyler had a new job to get so the house thing was on hold for a while. Once we were ready we began the pre-qualification process which was a nightmare because we are both 1099 employees and that doesn't really make anyone jump to finance us! But 4 months later we were pre-approved and ready! Our realtor had a bank owned home he wanted us to check out. It was a different model by the same builder so it was the style we wanted and a GREAT deal but after walking through it, it just wasn't our house. The house I had been "living" in the last 3 years. So we met with the builder and began the process of building our house!

 We were so in love with the lot. It is in the neighborhood we wanted and steps away from a basketball court, tennis courts, community garden, playground, and a field of grass directly in front of us so we'll never have another house to stare at. We were thrilled and wanted to show it off to my family. Three days after we signed the construction docs we took them to see it and there was already a hole!!

Even though it was winter, they worked so fast! Every time we went to check it out, there was lots of progress. It was very exciting and pleasantly stress-free. I have heard that building a home is in the top 3 most stressful things in life. We are very grateful for the organized, enjoyable experience.

 

  Closing was a nightmare. The underwriter on our file was a Nazi!! So after the longest week of my entire life, we had our keys and moved into OUR HOME! yahoo!

For the next week or so we were unloading box after box after box and the poor boy was left to entertain himself a lot of the time. Our main floor is very open and the only door frame for his Johnny Jump-Up was the coat closet ha! He would bounce part of the day, play in boxes, explore the cupboards and his favorite...check out the bathtub.  It's like the kid had never seen a bathtub before, he was fascinated!

 I had quite the project list once the house was ours. We spent days painting, putting together furniture, getting the front door sandblasted, installing backsplash, getting security installed, and more painting. It was wild and I can't believe we got it all done as fast as we did. Tyler is very happy the honey-do-list is complete...for now!

Here's a sneak peek at what we've done so far. It's sort of a theme throughout our house to have a neutralish envelope with with fun colors in the furnishings. Now we have to be patient until the dollar signs match my big plans! :)

This home is just perfect for our family. Every minute we've been here has lived up to all we imagined the last 3 years. Here's to many years of happiness ahead!!

cITy creek ARRIVED!

So I am in love with everything about the new City Creek Center. Beginning with their advertising campaign. Good design just makes me happy!

 We have a trax stop 1 mile from our house. (oh ya, we have a new house! I should blog about that sometime) So we thought it would be fun to ride them up to downtown. Maddox thought this was the best way of traveling, no car seat! It was pretty awesome and we didn't have to worry about downtown parking!

 The whole inside-outside marriage that is going on at City Creek is amazing. I love the juxtaposition. It was a heavenly 68 degrees and simply a beautiful night.

 We walked through the whole thing shopping, admiring and loving.

 The street performers brought an NYC feel which I loved. Live music on every corner and human statues like this (only the New York ones don't get personal security).

 I wish I could have gotten a better pic but this fountain blows water AND fire. Fabulous!!

 Mads had some fun at 77kids! You bet we took home that fedora and some other to die for baby clothes.

This was one of my favorite nights in a long time. I loved the energy, great design and of course spending it with my family!! City Creek, we welcome you with open arms. (though I do love the Gateway and hope it survives!)

Nine Months Old

Weight: 

17lbs 4oz 

10th percentile

Height: 

28" 

50th percentile

Head Size: 

45cm

40th percentile

LOVES

You can clap your cute little hands. It is so fun to watch you get excited and clap clap clap

Also with your hands you’ve learned to give high fives. We’re still working on the pounds

You’ve learned how to make so many new sounds this month, my favorite is the Indian sounds

I think you’ve learned that my little buzzer sound means “no” and for the most part you obey. Sometimes you stop, look at me, and then go back to eating whatever harmful thing you were playing with.

Your dad was out of town for work 3 weeks of this last month. One time when we dropped him off at the airport, he waved bye to you through the window and as I pulled away you burst into tears. It was so heartbreaking. Good thing Dad didn’t see, that macho man might have shed tears with you

You’ve learned how to pull off your shoes, socks, hats, and mittens. What a fun game to put them all back on and you pull them all back off!

Your first real word….“dada”!! And boy was your Dada proud!!

Your Aunt Amber taught you how to climb up the stairs, joy!

You must have known it was Valentine’s this month because you have been giving out so many kisses. They are open mouth and wet and I LOVE them!!

You are the sweetest little boy Maddox. We have so much fun watching you learn and grow. Thanks for being our little buddy. We love you!! 

Party Time!

Maddox and I went to our friend Tenley's first birthday party today! I have been friends with Shae (Tenley's mom) since high school. It was so fun to see her again and celebrate her sweet baby girl.

 They had this fun blow up ball pit. Maddox was in ball heaven!! I've got to get us one of those.

 Mads made a little friend, he helped him learn how to play with this toy. It was so sweet watching my boy interact with the other kids.

Naturally all the kids wanted to help open presents. It was a fun party with yummy food and great company!

Eight Months Old

LOVES
This was the month of bumps and bruises. Since becoming totally mobile, I am finding new boo boo's all the time. Sadness.

There was a wild week this month where the weather was superb. We spent each day that week at a different park. It is determined that you love swings! I loved watching you have so much fun.

Another thing you've mastered this month is standing. All you need is something to grip your little fingers on and you pull yourself up. You are too dang cute when you're supposed to be sleeping and we check on you only to find you standing at the edge of your bed smiling at us.

For some reason nursing time is now like jungle gym time. Talk about weird!

You rocked Grandma week!! Thank you for being such a happy baby and letting your dad and I enjoy some fun in the sun.

When we came home from a week long vacation, we were so happy to hear you hadn't had any poop explosions for Gma/pa. Except that you saved up and gave us some great welcome home poop. 3 baths before noon our first day home! haha

You sprouted 3 more teeth this month. Whaat?! Including your big two front ones! Oh you're growing up too fast.

You can wave bye bye and it is the cutest thing!!

PNCL Draft Party

 This last weekend was Pinnacle's draft party where the offices choose their territory for the summer. Tyler's office was second to select and they chose....San Antonio, TX. Should be fun!!

Tyler spent the weekend at the Zermatt in meetings and training with special ops soldiers. I was invited for the after party at the Soldier Hollow tubing hill. The longest runs in Utah I might add! It was such a blast, sort of scary but so fun!!

PNCL Cruise 2012

To reward Tyler's office for their accomplishments this summer, Pinnacle took us on a cruise to the Mexican Riviera. There were 77 in our group which totally made this trip. It was so fun to be with all our friends, especially those who we haven't seen since the summer. It was hard as heck to leave our Maddox but he did so good with Grandma and Grandpa (a little too good, he didn't even cry for me once!) As hard as it was, we really had so much fun spending quality couple times together!

SHIP FUN!

This was our dinner table each night. Personally, I think we had the best table :) We had so much fun dining like royalty!

We enjoyed a comedy show before each dinner and then the variety of entertainment after dinner. At this point, in our past cruises, we were lame-o and went to bed each night but not this trip. We stayed up late (2/3am!) playing mafia, getting our dance on (yes people, my Tyler went to the club with me!!), and more mafia. 

The morning news was shown on the TV in our room and on this big screen by the pool, funny that the big news that week was of a CARNIVAL CRUISE SHIP SINKING! Hello, why would they be showing us this? I found it very funny.

We made friends with a hypnotist on the ship and one night he put on a show for us using our friends. Hilarious!!

CABO I

Our first port of call was Cabo San Lucas. We took a water taxi over to Lover's Beach for the day.

The guys

The girls

While we baked in the sun, the guys had a flag football tournament. Besides the sand tearing up their feet, this was one of Tyler's favorite things we did.

Lovers at Lover's Beach!!

We were thinking of our Maddox (missed him dearly!) so we wrote him a message, which was washed away seconds later. Ha!

Before we had to be back on the ship, we did some shopping in the markets.

CABO II

Due to Mazatlan drama we had two days in Cabo so on our second day we decided to explore a new beach. We hired a driver for the day and went to San José del Cabo. We were there enjoying the water and the dark sand with GOLD in it (so glittery, I wish the pic below did it justice) but like 15 minutes after we got there one of our group stepped on a sea urchin, the porcupine kind. Our driver said that she really needed to get the needle things out asap so we packed up and went on a search for tools to remedy the situation. Our driver went to HIS HOUSE and had his girlfriend bring out a pair of tweezers. Talk about service! But they were so deep he needed a needle as well, so we went to pharmacy after pharmacy looking for a dang needle. We had him drop us off at Medano Beach, which was closer to the ship, while he basically performed surgery to DIG the needles out of her foot. It was an adventurous day but our friend survived and we ended up having a good time in the sun. (how can you not have a good time in the sun!?)

PUERTO VALLARTA

Last time we did this Mexican Riviera cruise, Puerto Vallarta was my favorite port of call and it was the front runner this trip as well. I love how beautiful it is. We always seem to cram so much into the hours we get to spend there.

We again piled into large vans and set out to our first stop: lunch/waterfalls. On the way we stopped at some lookouts and took in the great views. I love driving through the city and up the coast seeing all of the beautiful architecture and the green green green.

We ate lunch at this restaurant hut. The food was great and the entertainment better!

We then played in the water, the boys diving and sliding the girls cheering them on and wading :)

Next stop, a beach. To play in the waves. Tyler was like a little kid when it was time to go, I had to call him to come like 5 times. The guy didn't want to stop swimming! The water wasn't too cold, the sand soft and the sun shining. Heaven!

Ok so cruising with a huge group of friends is THE way to go. We had so much fun!! Huge shout out to the guys for earning this trip and a huge thanks to Pinnacle for sending us!!