Things that change when you have a baby

I found this online and thought I'd share.

1. You finally stop to smell the roses, because your baby is in your arms.
2. Where you once believed you were fearless, you now find yourself afraid.
3. The sacrifices you thought you made to have a child no longer seem like sacrifices.
4. You respect your body ... finally.
5. You respect your parents and love them in a new way.
6. You find that your baby's pain feels much worse than your own.
7. You believe once again in the things you believed in as a child.
8. You lose touch with the people in your life whom you should have banished years ago.
9. Your heart breaks much more easily.
10. You think of someone else 234,836,178,976 times a day.
11. Every day is a surprise.
12. Bodily functions are no longer repulsive. In fact, they please you. (Hooray for poop!)
13. You look at your baby in the mirror instead of yourself.
14. You become a morning person.
15. Your love becomes limitless, a superhuman power.
16. You discover how much there is to say about one tooth
17. You finally realize that true joy doesn't come from material wealth.
18. You now know where the sun comes from.
19. You'd rather buy a plastic tricycle than those shoes that you've been dying to have.
20. You realize that although sticky, lollipops have magical powers.
21. You don't mind going to bed at 9 p.m. on Friday night.
22. You realize that the 15 pounds you can't seem to get rid of are totally worth having."
23. You discover an inner strength you never thought you had.
24. You no longer rely on a clock — your baby now sets your schedule.
25. You give parents with a screaming child an 'I-know-the-feeling' look instead of a 'Can't-they-shut-him-up?' one.
26. Your dog — who used to be your 'baby' — becomes just a dog.
27. You take the time for one more hug and kiss even if it means you'll be late.
28. You learn that taking a shower is a luxury.
29. You realize that you can love a complete stranger.

Pioneer Woman

Ok, I came across this blog from Rachel C's page and oh man, is it funny! She is this lady who blogs recipes and takes pictures step by step. The comments are so hilarious and the food looks delicious (high calorie, but still delish!). Take a look.
http://www.thepioneerwomancooks.com/

Fun in St. George

Reading to the babies.
Brooklyn is overjoyed to be with her aunt Katie!
Testing the air....
She looks so....toddlerish!
Smooshing her nose on the window at a rest stop.

Natalie hanging out with her daddy at the park.
Playing on the slide. Her hair is flying in the wind. :-)
Katie is having the time of her life.
S he's getting to that stage where she offers me everything she has. Cute!
Grandma with her two granddaughters.

We went to St. George to celebrate Thanksgiving with the family. It was so fun! My grandparents live there and we all stayed with them. We all went to the park to play on T-day morning while the food was cooking, and then enjoyed a yummy meal that my Grandma, Mom, Melanie, and I prepared (I made the rolls). It was delish. The babies were so cute together--Natalie and Brooklyn are a month apart and will be such good friends growing up. We are so glad that Natalie has a cousin her age. Natalie and Brooklyn LOVED Grandma's little dog, DD and chased her all around the house. They also liked the grouchy cat until it hissed at them and swiped with a paw (didn't hurt the babies but they were sure scared!). We had a blast visiting with Melanie and Mike who sacrificed going to the BYU game to come down. On Saturday Melanie, Mom, Grandma, and I went shopping at this awesome home decor store and bought a few things. I can't tell you what, because it's a Christmas present for Mark (kinda for us both really). Natalie did great on the drive and slept through most of the nights there. She also napped really well. Thank you, white noise machine! Mark did lots of studying since his test is next week, but was able to find time to play as well. Mike set up a frisbee golf course in Grandma's backyard which we played a few times. Leave it to Mike to make a fun game out of nothing! Well, that's all for now. We are getting excited for Christmas!

My cute little girl

We got a gift card to BabyGap from a good friend back when Natalie was born. I decided to wait and use it when she got older since she had PLENTY of newborn stuff. So yesterday Grandma Simonson, Natalie, and I were at the mall and I bought Natalie a little dress with the gift card. It is an 18mo size, so it's slightly big, but hopefully she'll be able to wear it for a relatively long time. I bought a little shirt from Walmart to go underneath, and voila! A beautiful little gal. Behold for yourself:

Don't worry, this is an unused toothbrush. Ignore her drool spots. The dress looks long, but it's really just past her knees.
Tired out from all the pictures.
This is her puckered lip face that happens when she chews with her front teeth.
Laughing at daddy who is peeking out from behind the pantry door.
mmmmmm, cheese!

While we were at the mall we also rode the carousel. It was so fun! Natalie liked it, I think. She was a little nervous at first though. She started making gleeful noises during the actual ride, so I think it was a success! Grandma Simonson has a lifetime free pass for as many people as she wants, so we rode for free. I must be getting too old for that thing--I was a little queasy all day afterward!

Uhhh, I'm not too sure about this!

Eeeeek, what's going on?!

Well that's it, folks. Til later!

Bath time!

Natalie is just so cute when she takes baths. I had to take some pictures!

Eagerly anticipating her bath. She loves watching the tub fill with water and tries to touch it with her hands.
She's miffed that I'm taking pictures instead of getting her into the water!
Finally, joy in the water! Love the crazy morning hair.

Isn't this adorable? I love it. Right after I took this she started eating the faucet.

Drying off...brrr, it's cold!

Reading her beloved books. She LOVES stories and could barely wait to get dressed to read the story.

I love her smell so much right after the bath. Yum! Ta ta for now, folks.

Happy Birthday Mom!!!

It's my mom's birthday today so I wanted to wish her a special one. She's formumblemumblesomething years old. She's so talented and funny and smart and a wonderful mom and grandma! I was just remembering last night how when I was little and needed her all I had to do was open her door and she would wake up right away and tend to me. When you're a kid you think all your mom does is be a mom and I'm grateful that mine always made us kids feel like that. She's so great!! Happy birthday Mom!

The Zoo

Yesterday Natalie and I went to the zoo with Judy, Kathy, Jennie, Karlie, Afton, Brig, Megan, and Evan (some of Mark's aunts and cousins). We had such a fun time! Here are some pics of our adventures.

On our way in. Don't we look excited?
Giraffes. Melanie will be so jealous. They were very....big. Natalie was more interested in her toy. I liked them though!
We took a train ride around the zoo. Natalie wiggled a lot.On the train. Natalie is wiggling....and appears to be holding a piece of licorice. I swear I didn't give her any.
We played in a fountain. Here Natalie is being brave and getting close to a bubbly hole.

She got splashed! What a face!

Pause for a little snack. I sell these covers, if anyone's interested. Handy dandy for places like the zoo! She likes to play with my hair while she's nursing--see if you can spot her hand.

She loved the ducks. Here we are--AT THE ZOO--and she wants to play with the ducks. Next time we'll go to the park. She's being all bashful and shy as the duck gets closer.

More duck chasing.

It was such a fun day and we can't wait to go again! Next time hopefully daddy can go with us. He had work that day. I was exhausted from chasing her around...I'm not used to having a walking baby. At least when she was crawling I still carried her everywhere. Now she is not content to hang out in her stroller for very long. Thanks Judy for taking us to the zoo!!!

Our date

We went on a fun, cheap date the other night. Natalie went to sleep at 7:30 and Grandma Simonson stayed to watch her while we headed off to Del Taco. We enjoyed some free food thanks to Dad Simonson (gift certificates) and then went to tour the new San Tan mall which is really close to our house. It was neato, lots of fancy schmancy stores. We ooohed and aahhhed over adorable yet currently unaffordable baby clothes and spiffy purses. There is a fountain sort of in the ground that shoots water unpredictably into the air, and kids can come in their swim suits to play in it. We'll take Natalie next summer. The most fun part of our date was when we went to the Apple store and looked at all the neat gadgets. There was a computer set up to take and distort pictures of shoppers. We took some and I captured a few on the cell phone. We were laughing so hard! I'll include some here for your viewing pleasure.

That's Mark's bicep, in case you were wondering.

Anyway, it was a fun night. Ta ta for now!

New church time

So ever since we moved here (June of '06) we have enjoyed the fact that we have church for only 2 1/2 hours. Our stake is large and there are not enough buildings, so they reduced the meeting times and crammed 5 wards into each building. Well, we just got a new stake center and we have more room....so today we're back to 3 hour church. It's also from 2-5, a new time for us. Mark and I are twiddling our thumbs, wondering what to do until church time. It's always a different feeling when most of your day falls BEFORE church, instead of after. Like it feels like you can't get anything done because you haven't been to church yet. But at least we're both showered and ready for the day at 9am. :-) We're hoping Natalie lasts three hours. She'll miss her afternoon nap but maybe she'll sleep during church.

Natalie is walking all around the house now. I wonder if that makes her a "toddler" since she toddles or is she still a baby since she's under 1 year? At Target I've noticed her size (12mo) is with the toddler stuff, so maybe she is a toddler now. Sniff. Where did my little baby go? Maybe that's why I love nursing her so much--she seems like a baby when she's nursing. I've added some cute little pics of her looking like a big girl.

That's all for now, folks. Till next time!