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Inspiration:

And if you are wondering...the glasses are in the mail.

8 months

Can you believe it?

Our tiny creature is 8 months old.

She's still tiny, coming in around 16 lb 12 oz.
I love it.
She's so cute.

She has a third of one of her bottom teeth and an eighth of the one next to it.

She crawls and climbs on everything.

She rambles "mama" and "dada" quite a bit,

 but she loves talking nonsense even more.

She also discovered the joy of blowing raspberries on everything.
It cracks us up.

She responds to her name.

She loves dogs.

She can take steps as long as she is holding onto something.
She likes to tackle other children that are a few months older than her.
She still loves her baths.

Cheerios are her junk food of choice,
followed closely by ice cream.
She can't quite get over how cold ice cream is.

She loves anything that sparkles, especially shoes.
Her favorite toy is probably the little toy truck we got her.
She loves music and waving hi to people on the street.

I have to give myself an extra 30 minutes when we go anywhere,
because people will stop us and say "She waved to me!"
and then continue to tell us their whole life story.

And lastly,

she still loves her dad a lot.

Attachment

You know what's amazing?

A secure attachment.

Best thing ever.

About a week ago, we were playing at the park. 

I was on a blanket taking pictures of her when she looked at me and crawled off!

First, 4 feet, then 8 feet, and finally 20ish!!

I love her face. It's like weird determination.

She kept looking at me every so often, making sure that I was still there.

When she finally reached her destination, she sat and ate wood chips for a few minutes before crawling back to me.

When she came back, I doused her with plenty of mommy kisses.

It's been pretty great.

She'll play in her room or crib by herself now for long periods of time.

I'll here her talking to herself and playing.

If she's on the floor, she come and find me when she wants something.

She gives me a big smile as she pokes her head around the corner into the room I am in.

It's so sweet.

And...pop! Here's her smile!

I'll really miss this when she gets a bit bigger and is walking.

A New Kind of Adventure

This week has been an interesting week.

If you told me last Sunday that I would have a job on Friday, I would have laughed.

I wasn't even thinking about it.

Then Monday night I put my resume online.

I was interviewed Wednesday, and my first day was Thursday.

The best part is I get to take Tiny with me.

The 2nd best part is we get paid to hang out with two cute kids and two sweet dogs.

The first day went great...for the most part.
Madeleine and I got our "work" clothes on and went off to work!
(I'm kicking myself for not waking Matt up to take a picture)

When we got there the kids were asleep, but soon they were up and ready to play.
It was a rainy day.
It rained all day.
(At one point we went out on the porch and the little girl said, "Hey!! It looks like a waterfall!!!!!")
So we were cooped up inside but still having fun.

After lunch when we were all sleepy and full, we decided to watch a movie.

I was lying on the couch watching all three kids playing on the floor together while watching the movie.

It was a really sweet moment.

After a few minutes though, the little boy ran over to pet the dog.

He pointed to the floor and said, "Water!"

Uh...what?


Water in its calm state

I jumped up to see water rushing through one of the corners of the door.

I grabbed my phone and called their mom.

She couldn't hear me so I went up the stairs a bit.

She told me just to unclog the drain on the back porch.

When I came back down, the water had spread across half the room.

I told the five year old to run upstairs and grab some towels.

I barricade the rug so that the water wouldn't touch it.

(Meanwhile the little boy and Madeleine were squealing and playing in the puddle.)

  Then I went and unblocked the drain.

When I opened the door to to do it five inches of water rushed into the house, sending a little tsunami across the room.

Great.


How I felt

Luckily, unclogging the drain did the trick.

I looked around to survey the damage.

There were some puddles that were 2-3 inches deep and about a third of the basement was covered in water. 

But I was proud to see that none of the carpet got wet.

Booyah!

I started to clean up the mess, when I hear someone shout, "Hello! Is anyone there?"

It was their grandmother.

I answered the door with Madeleine naked in my arms (her diaper had fallen off  because of all of the water it had absorbedr) and the 3 year old boy stood next to me with slightly more clothes on.

Great first impression eh?

:)

I scooted out of that place as soon as I could.

At least I can say my first day ended with a splash.

We got home and took a bath before waiting outside for Matt to come.

Needless to say he was amused by our adventure.

Purse

After all the drama, I finally bought a purse.
(I have compete commitment phobia when it comes to buying a purse.
If it wasn't for Matt coming with me or trying on 4 outfits to make sure it looked good with all of them..
I would have come home empty handed.)  

It's a Dooney and Bourke.

It was quite an adventure though finding it.

I'm not a big fan of this fall seasons purses.

Quilted is in, which I love, but the colors for the most part are very dull.

Even my staple favorites like Nine West and Kate Spade were disappointing.

(Especially after Kate Spade's beautiful spring collection.)

Coach I think was my favorite line followed closely by Michael Kors.

If you are in the market for a purse, my suggestion would be waiting for next year unless you like black.

Candids and Outtakes

Cheerios

My kitchen sink looked like this this morning.

I had no motivation what-so-ever to clean it up so I could eat.

Tiny was sitting on the floor just looking at me.

So I grabbed the cheerios

and poured them on the floor.

We just sat there on the floor eating together.

I wasn't sure if she could eat them, since she doesn't have any teeth.

But sure enough her tiny fingers picked them up and they disappeared into her mouth.

It was a strangely sweet bonding moment.

Watching her watching me,

eating the same food off the same floor.

My head kept thinking that if people saw me that they would think I was an awful mother.

I mean really...how hard is it to wash out a bowl.

And what kind of example was I being by eating food off the floor?

But oddly enough, I felt like I was being awesome.

I knew my baby was watching every move I made.

I knew she liked me being on the floor with her.

I think she liked me being at her level.

Eating breakfast her way.

It slowed me down and made me less rushed.

While I was sitting there, 

I watched her back.

I observed how she struggled with the pincer grasp.

I watched as her dark eyes tracked my hands,

and how she just stared smiling at my face.

I saw her poke cheerios back in her mouth that didn't quite make it.

She's working hard on that whole being human thing, 

and she's making a lot of progress.

I think I need to be a bit more patient with her.

I saw my baby in the morning light coming through our door.

Especially after these hard teething nights,

it was nice seeing her as the sweet baby she is.

We connected in a weird way that morning.

I needed it.

Maybe she did too.

Vegetarian Chipotle Tacos

Matt and I try to eat vegetarian dinners at least twice a week.

Why?

Because meat is really expensive

 and we don't think we have to eat meat everyday.

While we do have an assortment of great recipes,

I was itching to try something new.

Something summery and if it happened to use up my zucchini even better. 

I found this recipe on Smitten Kitchen.

We love tacos so I was ready to give this a spin.

After reading through the recipe, I decided to make a few changes.

So here is my slightly altered version.

Vegetarian Chipotle Tacos

6 radishes

1 small (4 to 5 ounces) zucchini, long and narrow if you can find it

2 limes

Salt

1 can of corn

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 tablespoon olive oil, plus additional if blistering tacos in skillet

1 medium white onion, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

3 tablespoons chopped cilantro or parsley

1/2 cup crumbled cotija cheese

(or another salty, crumbly cheese such as ricotta salata or feta)

1/4 teaspoon chili powder

1 tsp of chipotle powder

10 to 12 small (6-inch) soft flour tortillas

avocado (optional)

To make the slaw

(I thought her directions for this were brilliant, so I just copied it)

"Cut radishes and zucchini into tiny matchsticks with a mandoline. If you don’t have a mandoline, you can use a peeler to peel thick ribbons down the long side of the zucchini. Stack the ribbons and cut them crosswise into thin matchsticks. Cut the radishes into a similar shape by hand. Toss radishes and zucchini together. Squeeze the juice of half a lime over the radish and season with salt to taste. Add more lime juice if desired. Set aside."

I suggest doing this before hand...like in the morning,

 because the longer it sat...the better it tasted.

But it still was good fresh.

The corn

1) Throw corn in a skillet with oil, garlic, chipotle powder, chili powder, and cilantro.

2) When corn is hot set aside

3) Make sure this has a lot of flavor.

Assemble

1) Heat up tortillas

2) Put the cheese on

3) Put the hot corn on

4) Put slaw on

5) Cut up raw onion and avocado to top it off

6) (if you want an unhealthier version of this, stick everything in and fry the sides of the tortilla)

We were suprised by the flavors of this.

The chipotle corn gives a heavy, smoky flavor to the taco,

while the slaw with the lime is really light.

It was an interesting combination.

It tasted very earthy, healthy, and light.

We liked it, but I have a soup recipe that uses these ingredients and more

that I absolutely love.

It's one of my very favorite recipes so I'll stick it up here soon. 

BYU fail

We got our cute tiny diplomas in the mail today.

I was pretty thrilled.

It was small and I wasn't expecting it.

But then I looked them.

It's not mine!!!!!

It is some guy at BYU that got a degree in management.

Matt said that just means I got a 2nd degree at BYU without doing anything.

Hey, if that's the case, I'll take it.

Princess Moment

Tiny figured that she should eat veggies in order to be a healthy princess one day.

Then she remembered that Rapunzel got locked up in her town because her mother loved veggies too much.

She's been on strike since then.

Since then, she's been living on a diet of milk, fruit, cheerios, flowers, and wood chips.

I figure at least she's eating something.

(Matt thinks flowers count as a veggy...thoughts on this?)

Flea Markets and our Living Room

(This is part 2 of our home tour...

for our bathroom and kitchen click here.)

When I woke up today, I just felt like an antiquing day.

The weather is beautiful and it was a Wednesday...

which just happens to be one of the 3 days that the closest flea market is open!

It's called the Golden Nugget and is only 25 minutes away from our home.

Combined with the free parking and admission,

it was a no brainer where we were going to go.

I was amazed how larger of a flea market it was.

When I got there I thought it was just one long row of tables.

When I got to the end of the row,

I was surprised to find a barn full of antiques,

and after I went through there there were more tables.

By then I pretty sure I saw everything but no.

There was still 2 more long rows AND a big warehouse to go through.

I should have brought my camera because there were so many beautiful things.

The old rings were amazing and I think I might get one next time I go.

Madeleine kept attacking the old necklaces and purses.

I didn't blame her -- they were so shiny.

My favorite thing I saw was an old hersey kiss lunch box.

Too cute right?

We weren't there as casual browsers.

We actually were there on a mission for a coffee table.

Our budget $40.

I knew exactly what I wanted and the price that I was willing to pay.

I wanted something that was thin with clean lines.

Matt and I had previously found some 60s coffee tables that we thought would work,

but they were $100+.

Well, I found one.

I actually found it within the first 10 minutes I was there.

But she was asking for $45 without tax.

So we bargained down to $35 with tax. 

I feel like our living room is finally presentable.

It was a bit of a challenge.

We started with our couch...which I really really REALLY love.

But that was all we had in our living room.

We quickly figured out that we desperately needed a rug for Tiny. 

Someone in our ward was sweet enough to donate one to us.

It was plush and comfy.

Our tiny loved it.

It's heaven on her knees when she crawls around on it.

I liked that it fit our needs, but it took me a while to accept the color.

Matt thought I was crazy.

 

Then the gallery went up.

The gallery isn't close to perfect.

I had it all laid out on the floor pinterest style (I was really proud of myself),

but then our little goober attacked all the frames on the floor.

So I just started hanging them randomly.

They are crooked and not close to perfect,

but that's okay. 

It has a lot of personality...just like all the people in the pictures.

I still have some throw pillows that I'm working on.

One is black and white...I haven't figured out what the other one is going to be yet.

I'll update you all when I do 

(or you can give me suggestions...I'm thinking pink or purple).

I'm starting to really like this room.
It's where baby and I hang out, and while it probably will never look more than just a college student's living room, it does feel homey.

So there you go, that's our living room.

Hopefully I can finish up this tour within one more post.

After all, we only have 5 rooms in this house.

Celebrating 2 years together

Matt took the day off yesterday to celebrate our anniversary.

We threw around a lot of ideas for what we could do,

but in the end we figured that the beach trumped New York City.

When we woke up, we got ready and left.

About ten minutes after we left the house,

it started raining.

It was coming down in sheets.

Matt could barely see the road, and several times we contemplated pulling over.

We had two stops on our way there, so we had our fingers crossed that it would be cleared up by the time our errands were done.

We needed sunscreen and Matt got me flip-flops for my anniversary present.

(I got him a pepper grinder. lol)

People were probably thinking we were crazy at Target and TJ Maxx.

We were in our swimsuits all ready for the beach...while it looked like anything but a beach day outside.

When we got about a mile from the beach, we finally saw some sunlight.

It still hadn't quite reached the beach when we got there.

As we bought our beach passes, the lady there said,

"You realize there is no refund."

We reassured her that we were planning on getting wet anyway,

so the rain didn't bother us much.

We ran into the water.

It was wonderful.

The ocean was a bit choppy and there was no one there.

We had to get out after a bit because Tiny was getting cold.

We grabbed lunch at Applebee's before heading back.

The sun was out when we got there!

It was beautiful.

The three of us walked down the beach together.

Tiny on Matt's shoulders and us holding hands.

It was great.

After that back in the water we went.

We played until dinner time,

before heading home to brownies and curry.