Nicole and Brady

Pictures from Safford

2012-01-25T20:24:00.000-08:00

I just wanted to put up some pictures from the trip to Safford for Grandma's birthday.

Watching Grandpa grate large amounts of cheese.

Playing games with Gigi...

And Great Grandma.

Oliver was met at his Grandpa Buckley's house by Shasta the dog. He went crazy with excitement. He loves dogs. He got to pet him and get big kisses from Shasta. He laughed the entire time. As did I.

Petting Shasta

Grandma's Girls Day Out

2012-01-20T14:36:00.000-08:00

I found the camera cord! Actually Brady found it for me.

On Grandma's 80th birthday, my mom and I (and Ollie) went down to Safford to surprise her with our presence, and her big gift. This year, her daughters gave her a "girls day out". Nails, shopping, dinner, and a Broadway show, "South Pacific". The "girls" also included any daughter-in-laws and granddaughters that decided to join. It was fun. Now for some pictures, family can steal the pictures if you'd like.

Opening gifts in Safford on her actual birthday

About 2 weeks later everyone headed to Mesa for the big day. We started with nails, then shopping.

Grandma after her manicure

Ollie and his Gigi

Jenny

Danielle

Aunt Laura and Mallory

It seemed that everyone had a wedding to shop for, so it was a full day of shopping at Superstition Springs. Afterwards we had an early dinner where the men joined us at the Cheesecake Factory.

Brady, Grant, Kirstie, Mallory, Danielle, Jenny, Colter, Sarah, Andrea

Craig, Candace, Bernice, Grandma, Grandpa, Dave, Laura, Patrice, Max, Alfred

Aren't they the cutest?

Ollie was there too

So was I

And Marshall came late

After dinner and a quick clothing change, we left the guys again and went to see "South Pacific" at ASU Gammage. I didn't get any pictures of us since we were in a hurry, but let me tell you, Grandma was excited. It was kind of funny. She loves musicals so this was a perfect end of the night. I also thoroughly enjoyed the show although I don't really like the movie. There was a french guy in this show that none of us could understand, and he was one of the stars! Awesome.

Happy Birthday Grandma! You're the greatest! We love you!

In Other News...

2012-01-19T21:08:00.000-08:00

So I sat down to blog about Grandma Bingham's 80th birthday. However, I can not for the life of me find my camera cord that has mysteriously disappeared. So that will come hopefully tomorrow. So on to other things.

In new news. I'm officially an old lady.

I've subscribed to O Magazine. (It was an impulse buy, near the register.) I got a super cheap offer and thought, "why not?" It'll give me something to read during the down moments that don't last long enough to read a chapter in the book I'm reading.

*note to mom: you can have my old copies when I'm done with them.*

In more fun related news. Brady's brother, Riley, is getting married next month to Susan. They asked me to design their wedding invites. They knew that I had designed mine and Brady's and liked that idea. Susan told me that she liked "vintage chic" and lots of pictures. So this is what I came up with.

(click on the picture to see them larger.)

Side A, Susan was very specific that she wanted three pictures on the front with the announcement on the middle one. My first attempt was very different. I liked the way this one turned out.

Side B, I had a little more freedom on this side. Happy to report that she liked it.

It was fun to work on this, I liked having a project to work on, and it made me realize that I really miss doing photoshop work. I'll have to dabble in that a little more.

In stupid news. Brady and I had an interesting Sunday. A few weeks ago, the Bishop had warned us that there was to be the Rock n Roll marathon in Phoenix in a few weeks, and it will make getting to church a little difficult. He had said that he will give more info about it the next week. Well, Brady and I was either sick or in the hall with Oliver whenever that info was delivered and we suffered for it.

We set off to go to church, on time, I might add, and were immediately road blocked. We were sent in the opposite direction we needed to go and every time we tried to get in the right direction, we were sent some where else. We ended up in downtown Scottsdale. Not anywhere near where we needed to be. Then in the attempt to bypass the marathon from the north side, we got stuck on the same road until we reached the 51, again, not anywhere near where we wanted. By then, I finally got the genius idea to text Julie, who is in our ward and ask how to get there. Luckily she texts during church. ;) Apparently, it was super simple and we could've been at church right on time, instead, we were an hour late!

After church, we tried going back the way we came. But that was not successful. We tried about 4 different routes before throwing in the towel and just going to eat lunch at IHOP to wait it out. Frustrating! But it was a good laugh too. We honestly could not believe how stupid we felt not being able to get anywhere. I really hope we weren't the only clueless ones. I'm sure we could've made it home easily if we knew back roads and neighborhoods. But we don't. Oh well, made for a good memory. The End!

Who says PBS doesn't air good shows?

2012-01-09T10:02:00.001-08:00

I am obsessed with this show.

Downton Abbey is about an aristocratic family in England and their house staff. I may love the house staff more because they are more relatable to me, but it's all so good.

I watched all of season 1 on Netflix between Wednesday and Sunday. I finished in time for the season 2 premiere Sunday night.

I had heard many good things about this show and finally decided to give it a try, and I was immediately hooked. It's totally riveting, with good story and good characters, those you love, and love to hate. Even Brady, who only watched an hour of season 1 with me and the season 2 premiere, said it was a good show, and "not boring".

I highly recommend it.

Reflections of 2011

2012-01-02T19:57:00.000-08:00

I should take pictures of New Years celebrations sometime, but it didn't happen again this year. Brian and Katharine came over and we hung out eating delicious food, watching a movie, playing games and ringing in the New Year. Oliver loved them, and refused to go to bed and miss out on the fun. He stayed up until 10:30pm. That's 3 hours past his bed time. But Brady and I had fun and loved having our friends company.

It's now 2012. So, like everyone else I'm thinking about how this year is going to be better than last. That's what I've noticed from Facebook statuses, (I dislike Facebook most times. It's such a downer.) Anyways, here's what I have been thinking about:

2011 was a very challenging year for myself and for Brady and I together. We faced three huge challenges this year, but there were always blessings to come from it.

Unemployment: This started in 2010, but it didn't end until just this September. Brady applied to tons and tons of jobs and we didn't see a lot of promise until this summer. This made things difficult for us financially and emotionally. But after all the prayers, priesthood blessings, and persistence, Brady was able to get a job in his field and even right here in Phoenix. He really enjoys his job and he even has plenty of time to do his New Vintage Film freelance work. Other blessings to come out of this was that we were able to learn to live on a single income, communicate our feelings better, and Brady was able to stay home with Oliver and became an amazing father in the process while I worked.

New home: This was difficult for me to accept at first but once we got moved, we fell in love with this change. After being in a ward that was challenging for us to feel comfortable, we ended up in an amazing ward with fantastic people, that we never want to leave.

A Baby During Unemployment: Oliver has been the biggest change and blessing in our lives. Having him during unemployment brings a set of challenges. Having to leave Oliver at home while I went to work everyday was really hard. The blessing to come out of this was Brady was able to become an amazing father and he understands the difficulties of being a stay at home parent. I also was able to become closer to my co-workers and even became friends with them which made being away from home a hundred times easier.

I'm looking forward to this year. We have no big plans, except the movies we want to see (Hunger Games, Batman, The Hobbit) and celebrating Ollie's 1st birthday.

I'm watching TV while writing this so I hope this post is good.

So here's to the unknown!!

Christmas Time

2011-12-28T11:01:00.000-08:00

I hope everyone had a good Christmas. We had a great time here at home with lots of family and food.

I always said that Ollie would be walking by Christmas, and I was right! December 23, 2011 marks the big day that he officially became a walker.

He's been getting better and better everyday.

Christmas Eve we hung out with mom and Sarah eating our traditional Mexican food and then we went to the temple to see the lights.

Ollie was so tired.

We opened pajama gifts on Christmas Eve and took pictures by the fireplace (sponsored by Netflix).

Stuffed Puppy from Santa

Pushing Walker from Aunt Sarah

My awesome kid loves beef jerky. I'm so proud. Gigi put homemade jerky in his stocking.

After church, and a nap, we went to visit Brady's parents until bedtime. Ollie seemed to really enjoy his first Christmas and actually still plays with his gifts 3 days later. Big success.

Christmas Came Early

2011-12-22T21:07:00.000-08:00

I guess I should do a post before Christmas. So, remember this picture?

Little TV, doing it's job, keeping me sane.

A few weeks ago, we got Big TV back!

52" of Awesome! (We were watching The Matrix.)

(Side note: that is also our, baby keep away from the TV, gate. Best thing we've got for Ollie, ever!)

We were so excited to have the TV back. One of the big reasons is because our big Christmas gift that Brady had the great idea to get was a Blu-Ray player. Yup, we finally stepped into 2009. Before the TV came back we went to FYE and bought a bunch of blu-ray movies. That was challenging since we don't want to buy movies we already own, so most of the movies we got were action movies. The first movie we tried out was Tron. We were blown away by the beautiful picture. I'm officially a fan.

Oliver is doing great. He's very excited for Christmas, or at least he should be, but really he's just wandering around all the time and has no idea it's coming. He's so close to walking, it's ridiculous.

Speaking of Ollie

Hillbilly Baby!

Have a Merry Christmas everyone!

Past Times: Supercross 2009

2011-12-03T07:31:00.001-08:00

When was the last time I wrote a Past Times? I'm not going to check, but I was looking through some old pictures and came across tons that I took when Brady and I went on many out of town trips with my in-laws Supercross team for Riley Racing. Since Brady was their video guy, he would go and film stuff for a sponsor video. And because Brady's family is super nice, I got to go too. There are a lot of pictures so bare with me.

First was Anaheim 1. Supercross seasons always begin in Anaheim, so off we went.

Brady and I packed up and drove there early Saturday morning.

Interesting sign: "Do not put fingers into horses stall"

So if you're not a member of AMA, you can get these "pit passes" that should be able to get you around easier. Not so in Anaheim, I couldn't get into the stadium unless I went all the way around front. That's a long walk. So I didn't get to go anywhere.

Brady showing off the new sweatshirts and beanies that he embroidered himself.

Angel's Stadium from the parking lot.

Next up was in good ol' Phoenix. It's kind of fun when we know where we can get around. Pit Passes work here.

Watching some practices

Brady was the photographer for these events as well.

Next trip was to San Diego. This trip felt long, because we did a lot of sight-seeing on this one. We went on Friday before Supercross and spent Valentine's Day on the town. We went to the Gaslamp Quarter and walked around. I bought Brady and myself a new hat as a Valentine's gift and we ate at the most delicious mexican restaurant called La Fiesta. We just choose it because it was mexican and had no wait. It was heaven.

Brady's new hat

My new hat

On Saturday since we didn't have much to do at the Supercross until later, we went sightseeing, a little. We stopped by the temple. We had even brought our bikes from home and went riding around, which isn't easy. San Diego has a lot of hills.

At Supercross, our group was able to steal/sneak into, a private seating box. It was a perfect seat.

After about a month of no travels for Brady and I, we went to Salt Lake City's Supercross. This one was probably my favorite. We got to stay with Brady's grandparents and I got to meet a lot of his family for the first time. This trip felt more vacation-like to me.

It snowed!

Blake, Steve, Brady and Grandpa Gillman

Salt Lake's Trax light rail has a stop right next to the stadium, so we hopped on to go to shopping areas since we needed warm gloves and thermals to keep us warm. We were so unprepared for the weather.

Napping in the semi

We sat super high at this one. Luckily it wasn't snowing or raining during the event. But check out those stairs! We climbed them all!

Brady after climbing the stairs for a 2nd time.

Last stop was Las Vegas for the Supercross finals.

We drove there with Brady's mom, Cindy.

We stopped in Kingman to eat at Mr. D'z. YUMMY! A must stop for every Vegas trip. (I want some now *sigh*)

The bridge at Hoover Dam, not yet complete.

After arriving in Vegas we met up with everyone at the hotel and decided to go to the strip for some buffet dinner. We choose Mandalay Bay. The food was pretty good, but the desserts were amazing.

See?

We went walking around for a bit. We parked at the Bellagio and walked around there and Caesar's Palace.

Garden in the Bellagio

Everyone watching/waiting at the Bellagio fountains.

Back to work for Supercross

Since we were there early, Brady got to go with the rest of the mechanics and "walk the track". He said it was pretty cool.

Since we were able to get away, Brady and I went and checked out the Las Vegas Temple. We also got some tasty kabobs at some little hole in wall place.

Watching Supercross

Yay! It's over! Confetti! Check out that crowd!

After everything was packed up, we were back at our hotel around 11:30 or something like that. But we were still in Vegas and our friend, Jeff, was 21 that day, so to the strip we went. I don't remember which casino we went to, but we got some ridiculously expensive corn dogs, and hit the slots. None of us got too into it. We would try our luck with one machine then move on. Brady won about $18 on the penny slots, but the big winner was Jeff with about a $60 win, but he was on quarter slots. We got to the hotel at 3am, way late for me. Home the next day.

It was all a great experience to be able to get out of town and sight-see as a young newlywed couple. Thanks to my awesome in-laws for allowing us to go together and make fun memories.

Thanksgiving and Thanksmas

2011-12-01T10:29:00.001-08:00

Two Thanksgivings. Crazy times. On Thanksgiving day we spent the day with my side of the family at my Great Aunt Evelyn's house. We saw a lot of family that we rarely see so it was fun. After too much food, Brady and I left Oliver with his Gigi and Aunt Sarah and went to see The Muppets, which was so very good. Best date night, then back to Sarah's to play a game of Ticket to Ride. Fun game.

The day after, my in-laws decided to do a Thanksgiving dinner and right after, a little Christmas. My sibling in-laws and nephews flew in for it and it was great to spend time with them and for Oliver to meet more of his family. Oliver loved Rafe and Skye. I could tell that he really wanted to get up and run around with them, however he was a little limited. But still had fun.

It's not a cousin picture unless someone is crying.

The Girls: Shannon, Susan, myself

The Boys: Riley, Brady, Michael, and all the facial hair

The Whole fam

On Saturday we went to the park to feed the ducks with my mom and Sarah. I love AZ weather around the holiday's.

Ollie and Gigi

As an added bonus, check out Ollie cracking up as Rafe plays peek a boo with him.

Saturday Was Awesome

2011-11-21T15:42:00.001-08:00

Our weekend was pretty darn good because Saturday was pretty darn good. It started when my dad came for a visit. I just figured out now that I should have taken a picture of Ollie and his grandpa together, but I didn't think of it at the time. Anyways, my dad was in town and stopped by for a visit. It was nice to talk and hang for a bit and Oliver loves him. Dad also showed me this amazing video.

Anyways, check out our TV.

I know, hard to see.

We've been without our big screen TV for months now, it wasn't working properly for a while and we've been using my little 19 incher for a long time. With Brady's extra freelance work/pay he did this month we're finally getting our TV fixed. We're so excited! Merry early Christmas to us!

Saturday night, we were in Scottsdale visiting with my in-laws, Blake and Cindy. We went to dinner at Streets of New York. When we first sat down, two older couples came up to us and oogled at Oliver. Then there was a young family sitting near us and they had a little girl that was only a week older than Ollie (we asked), and Oliver would not stop looking at her. He was turned completely backward in his chair, watching her. It was pretty funny. The best part was toward the end of our dinner, two more old couples were leaving and walking by us, one lady stopped so she could get "one last look" at Ollie. An old man stopped to say to Oliver that he "would take him home with him if he could". The best was from an old, like 80+ year old lady said to Blake, who was holding Oliver at the time, "I'm going to go home and have sex, so I can have a baby just like him." Our faces went to the table in laughter. Wow. Oliver: inspires many.

Now for some pics

After getting home one day, I set Oliver down on the floor and he just played with my keys right there for 20 minutes. I had to get a picture.

For a couple of weeks, he did this face a lot.

Ollie is getting all over the place, he sure does love to walk around, as long as he has a couch or wall to hang on to. He loves books, he'll flip through every page of his books and looks like he's reading them, except they're usually upside down. He has 5 teeth, I keep telling people that he has 6, but turns out, I lied; 3 on top, 2 on bottom.

We're looking forward to a busy family filled holiday weekend. Then we're going to decorate the house for Christmas, I'm so excited for Oliver to see the lights. We just have the daunting task of figuring out how to keep Ollie from pulling the tree down.

9 Months On, 9 Months Off

2011-11-08T17:03:00.000-08:00

I've heard from a bunch of places that after having a baby, you need to give yourself at least 9 months to loose the baby weight. I'm happy to report that it worked for me. Woo Hoo! OK well, I don't know how much I actually weigh. The last time I weighed myself, a month ago, I had 7 pounds to go, but as of this weekend, I'm in my pre-pregnancy jeans! I did it with Weight Watchers. I didn't loose a single pound for months and months until I joined 2 months ago. I don't like to count calories nor can I find an exercise I like to do, but I looked into Weight Watchers and figured that I could do it. And I did! Funny thing, is that since Brady is eating what I eat, he's loosing weight too, without even trying. I'm going to continue tracking my points so I can reach my ultimate goal of reaching my pre-marriage weight.

I got some advice from some of you's about what to do with Ollie during the day. Thanks guys. I took Julie's and Shannon's advice and joined the play group in our ward. I went for the first time last week and it was nice to get outside and get to know some more of the awesome ladies in my ward. Thanks ladies!

On Friday, Oliver got his first fever. It was a side affect from one of the vaccines he got the day before. He was super whiny and the only time he would calm down was when I would put on an episode of "Yo Gabba Gabba". Luckily that kids show doesn't bother me so much.

Oliver's newest trick; pulling himself up to a standing position. Here's the weird thing, he doesn't crawl yet, despite an expert fast army crawl, he also cannot get himself into a sitting position from laying down. But if I sit him within 6 inches of the couch, there's a 85% chance that he'll be standing in 20 seconds, and then shuffling himself down the length of the couch then onto the wall. Whew. I'm afraid he'll be walking by Christmas. Yes, afraid, I'm not ready for my baby to start running around.

Happy Halloween

2011-10-31T11:49:00.001-07:00

New life as a mom

2011-10-25T21:36:00.000-07:00

So I've survived my first week and a half of being a full time mom.

I've learned a few things:

Doing the dishes every day is better and easier than doing them twice a week.

I forget to drink water when I'm home.

Adult conversation is wonderful. (please talk to me people!)

Oliver won't play with any of his toys that we have for him.

Nap time is a much needed break, I go crazy when Oliver won't take them.

I have no idea how to entertain a 9 month old baby. (Please tell me how!)

After shopping at Macy's, Oliver loved kicking around this bag. FYI: Macy's bags are super durable!

Oliver's favorite toy: his book "Little Quack's ABC's". Thank you to whoever gave it to him.

A lot of people have asked me how it is to have Brady work over nights. Well let me tell you. Here's how it goes. He leaves for work at 7:30ish every evening. Ollie goes to sleep anytime between 7:45 and 8:30. I have the rest of the night to do whatever I want until I go to bed between 10 and 11. By the time I wake up, Brady's home and sleeping. I wake up when Ollie does. We do our thing until Brady wakes up, usually by 2pm. We then have the rest of the afternoon to do whatever we want until the cycle starts again. Weekends are great because it feels like we get a 3 day weekend since he doesn't go to work until Monday evening. So it's not all that different from having a husband work a regular 8am-5pm shift; our hours together are just a little shifted.

I'm enjoying the extra time I have with my family, it's really been a blessing. This week Brady is doing extra work as New Vintage Film so I'll be seeing a little less of him, but we're happy about it at the same time.

That's about it for now. But seriously, how do you entertain a 9 month old? Any suggestions are appreciated.

Meet my new boss!

2011-10-18T09:28:00.000-07:00

He's the toughest boss I've ever had. He makes me work long hours. I have to spoon feed him, change him and rock him to sleep. He's kind of mean; he pulls my hair and scratches my face. I have to clean up after him and he likes to spit up his food I just fed him at least once a day. He whines to me all the time but just won't cut to the chase and tell me what he wants me to do. Rude, huh. However, he is so stinking cute.

Here's a memo he wrote me this morning.

-=V"

"""""

V$VV.9po∂˙ ˙uik hhg h h xxxxo o fi u m,8 m . .bko9l hrdludci 5io ¥ m nswiitik m,

I don't even know how he got some of those Greek looking letters.

Yesterday was the beginning of my new adventure in life as a stay at home mom. My last day at University of Phoenix was on Thursday. The last day was supposed to be Friday but some, ahem, people, in HR or tech disabled my computer access two days early. So I came home after my team took me out to lunch, feeling like I got fired. Oh well. I enjoyed my time working at UoP. I worked on a great team and made some good friends.

Our decision to have me come home at this time was a good decision, but it was also a hard one. But after much prayer, this was the choice that felt the best. We're having to cut back on our spending a bit and really rely on the Lord that everything will be fine. And I know it will be.

I'll have to give a report after my first week of staying home at the end of the week. So far, I'm exhausted. :) People tell me that being a SAHM is a hard job, but nobody ever said that it was labor work! I'm used to going to work and sitting on a computer all day. Well yesterday, I was up, down, rolling on the ground, doing chores, and by noon I was beat. It really shows how out of shape I am. Brady just laughed and teased me about it. This is a whole new trade for me.

I think I'm going to get off this computer now and do a little hobby while Ollie sleeps!

Day 18: Soundtracks

2011-10-10T14:40:00.000-07:00

Favorite movie soundtrack. I skipped this category many times. I just didn't know what to choose. It's tough because one day I love a soundtrack and listen to it all the time, then one day, I can't stand more than two songs on it. It happens. But a conversation I had with Sarah on Friday night made me figure out what to put. Are these soundtracks my favorites? I don't know, but I do love them and go back to them every once and a while. These are soundtracks I grew up listening to. They are:

Dirty Dancing

Footloose
How dare they (Hollywood) remake Footloose! How dare they green-light a remake of Dirty Dancing! I read that they don't think they are treading on hallowed ground, but they are! Iconic scenes, iconic music, iconic actors (no Swayze, no wayze)! These are classics, and should not be touched. As for the soundtracks, they define these movies.

My mom loved Dirty Dancing and we watched it a lot at our house. The music was fun, catchy and we listened to the soundtrack a lot in the car, including the 2nd soundtrack with more music from the movie. Some of my favorites from the movie are "Love is Strange " the song Baby and Johnny lip-sing to. "Hungry Eyes" with the iconic scene of Johnny teaching Baby how to dance (the tickle scene). I also love "Love Man" where Johnny and Baby dance for the first time at that party. Side note: my Senior High School class did our own rendition of the "Time Of My Life" scene for our senior show.

I may like the soundtrack to Footloose more, since the music is more my style. Who didn't mimic the feet during the opening credits? I know Sarah and I did every time. Kenny Loggins was/is the man. I love a good Bonnie Tyler track to a game of chicken ("Holding Out For a Hero"). And who doesn't love watching Chris Penn awkwardly learn how to dance to "Let's Hear It For The Boys"? Just this Sunday, in Relief Society at church, we sang "Israel, Israel God is Calling" and all I wanted to do is ask Sarah, "What do think of when you hear this?" and to have her say, "Footloose".

Day 17: I Want To Go To There

2011-10-06T14:51:00.000-07:00

The movie I want to live in. I would probably first say Amelie, but I've already talked about that movie. So I thought about it some more and thought of another "French" movie. It's not actually a french movie but it's a period movie that takes place there.

Chocolat

When I think of Paris, I imagine it to be like Amelie, when I think of any other town in France, I think of this movie. It's a period movie, taking place in the early 60's, I believe, so I love the style of the fashion and the mannerisms. I'm sure you're really wondering why this movie? It's not exactly a fun setting. The people in the town are super conservative, which is the basis of the story. But the town folk are quirky and lovable, at least most of them.

The town is small and quaint, with old brick building with lots of character, just how I think all of Europe is. I know my well-traveled friends will snicker at that, but I live in a fantasy world when it comes to Europe.

Here are some other legit reasons I would like to live in this movie.

Aw yes, a cast of silly townspeople. It's really the people that make a town what it is, et al. Stars Hollow in Gilmore Girls. And they have awesome dinner parties where their turkey (or chicken) is covered in CHOCOLATE!

A charming shop filled with delicious, handmade chocolate owned and ran by a rebellious, yet kind, mystery lady. She wears red shoes (unlike the other mothers).

And above all:

Johnny Depp stops by! Johnny Depp, peoples! And in this small town, you know you'll get to rub elbows with him.

Chocolate and Johnny? Yup, I'm in.

We've been doing stuff

2011-10-05T07:46:00.000-07:00

I thought I oughta actually blog about what we've been doing lately. With pictures and all that stuff. Oliver is now 8 months old! Crazy! I took some pictures. But he wasn't exactly in the mood, but I got an official 8 month picture here.

October 1, 2011

I was hiding around a corner of where Ollie was sitting and I would call his name and he would lean forward and smile at me. It was so funny.

I took this next picture while Brady vacuumed the floor. Apparently Oliver doesn't like the vacuum, he cried when it was on and would look at it suspiciously when it was off.

I love it when Oliver looks at himself in the mirror. He kept "kissing" himself the last time we put him in front of it.

He's getting more and more mobile. We're having to constantly keep him away from the cords. We have some baby-proofing to do.

Three years in the making! I bought a cross stitch when Brady and I were on our honeymoon. I finally finished it this past weekend. I was really excited. I didn't work on it for three years straight. In fact, I probably went over a year without touching it at all, and dabbled on it here and there for another year. But here it is in all it's glory.

I think it turned out pretty cute.

Did you know that Brady started his own blog?! I have the link under my Friends and Family, he writes his posts while at work at 4am. He's pretty funny. His most recent post from last night is about our night out seeing a movie with our friends Brian and Kat, (after which, we ate delicious burgers at Zinburger. Mmm.)

Brady seems to be enjoying his new job. The hours, 8pm -5am, are growing on him and we're both getting used to it. Since I'm still working at this time, we've been super lucky and incredibly grateful for my mother-in-law, Cindy, to watch Oliver so Brady can sleep.

Have you noticed my Pinterest link on my side bar? You should follow me. And I'll follow you. I love Pinterest. I'm almost obsessed. I probably spend about an hour a day, not in one sitting, but total, just browsing and pinning things I love. I've found a lot of cute crafty projects to try out. I've even done some!

I have also found some very delicious recipes even a lot of healthy ones that Brady and I have really liked.

These are some things on my to-do list. I either have some of the materials already or I just really want to try it out.

Because of Pinterest, I taught myself how to crochet. So I made that scarf in the top picture, I even made one of the slippers in this above picture. It didn't quite fit right so I'm going to try again soon. Fun times, fun times.

That's about it for now, that I can think of. Stay tuned for Day 17 of my movie blog challenge.

Day 16: My Rebel Years

2011-10-04T09:47:00.000-07:00

Today I'm revealing movies that my mom didn't want me to see, but I saw them anyways. I can only remember one movie that my mom was actually disappointed in me seeing, but we'll get to that. First, these others are movies I saw that my mom should have been worried about, but wasn't. Just so you know. I tell my mom everything, huh mom. Even if I did something "bad" like ditch classes, I would think, "I won't tell my mom, she'll never know," I always ended up confessing, even if I knew I'd get away with it. So I'm not confessing anything here that she probably doesn't already know about. I think.

Army of Darkness
I'm not sure my mom knows that I saw this movie when I was like 11 or 12. I was at a friends house and she popped this in because she liked it and wanted to show it to me. I didn't even know what it was called, but man oh man, I liked it too. It cracked me up, and I'm pretty sure most of the jokes went over my head. The movie is ridiculous, and I own it now, because Brady likes it too. I just know I was too young to see it.

I saw the rest of these movies at Amy's house who was my high school best friend.

Rocky Horror Picture ShowAmy loved this movie. She sang the music all the time and finally showed it to me. The music is oddly catchy and I enjoyed it. But I never saw it again.

Heathers
I honestly can not remember Heathers at all. But I also know enough about it to know I shouldn't have seen it at 15.

The ShiningOK, I was 17 when I saw The Shining. But I still think that's too young. This movie creeped me out! I left the room multiple times to get some levity. When I told my mom that we watched this, she just said that that movie scared my dad.

The Matrix
So this is the one my mom got mad at me for watching. Which is funny, it's the one I like the most out all these others. I was 16. I was again at Amy's house. It had recently come out on DVD. (DVD was still pretty new and Amy's family actually had a player, lucky.) I watched it with Amy and her brother. I liked it a lot. I thought it was a pretty cool action movie. I went home that night and my mom asked what movie we watched, I told her. And she was disappointed saying that it was about "senseless killing". Um. No. But ok. (hahaha)

Day 15: Cryfest

2011-09-26T14:32:00.000-07:00

Movies that had made me cry the hardest. The ugly-cry movies. Tear me up inside movies.

Toy Story 3
Whole cow. I've seen this movie 2 times all the way through and another time I caught the end of it at my sister's house. I bawled every single time. This is a sob movie, as in, I make sobbing noises that last 2 minutes into the credits. I don't know what it is. Maybe it's because I felt like I grew up with those characters, the first movie came out when I was like 12. I feel the pain and nostalgia of letting go, I guess.

The Notebook
I only cried the first time I saw this movie, but the first time, oh my. I had gotten early screening passes to see this movie and took my sister with me. I think the tears started about 15-20 minutes toward the end of the movie. So by the time the end of the movie rolled around, I was a mess. I sat there sobbing. I don't believe Sarah cried nearly as hard. She left me in the theater to go to the bathroom. I composed myself enough to walk out of the theater. I sat on a bench outside the bathroom waiting for Sarah, and cried some more! I don't know what hit me that day.

Day 14: Guilty Pleasures

2011-09-23T13:32:00.000-07:00

Oh. Guilty Pleasures. These are the movies I can't help but love no matter how bad they are. I don't really feel guilty for loving these. I enjoy them, I know other people that enjoy them. And they are just fun to watch. So lay off me! j/k

The Adventures of Huck Finn
I can't help myself here. I think this movie is great. No really, this isn't a bad movie. Disney did good here. Ever since I was a youngin, I loved this movie. It's not like I'm in love with Elijah Wood. I'm not, I just like him. But he is actually really good in this movie. He's totally committed to this character and is so fun-loving, I'm sure Mark Twain thought of Huck Finn like this more than the more sullen Brad Renfro version in Tom and Huck. Yes, it's a guilty pleasure because it's a Disney kids movie and most people have never even seen it, that I know of, and I get weird looks when people see that I own it. But I like it!

Kung Pow: Enter the Fist
I'm sure most people watch this movie and think that it's really dumb. But I tend to make some awesome friends, and everyone that I associate with thinks that it's pretty great. This movie is so stinkin' hilarious to me. How hilarious? Brady and I still quote it, with a giggle. "THAT'S A LOT OF NUTS!!" "'Chosen One! *quack*' 'I'm coming!'" Is it weird? Yes. Is the fight with the cow scene stupid? Absolutely. Do you own it? Heck yes I do!

The Faculty
Is this considered a horror movie? If so, I guess I do like a horror movie. And more Elijah Wood... Hmm. I saw this expecting a crap movie, and it is. Kind of, nothing ground breaking here, but it's awfully fun. I can't help myself. Maybe it's the over the top seriousness of the situation, and how everyone reacts. Maybe it's Josh Hartnett in his totally cute greasy days. I don't know.

Space Camp
OK, come on, admit it. This movie is awesome! Look at that cast! It's Leaf Phoenix! This movie is all types of amazing. Jinx and Max! The amazing belt that apparently extends to a thousand feet long in space! They go to space! Come on what's not to love. "It's Space CamP"!

Day 13: The Book is Always Better

2011-09-22T14:29:00.000-07:00

Now for movies that disappointed me when it came to going from book to screen. Of course I had to read these first. There aren't a whole lot of movies that I was disappointed in to the point that I hated the movie. So I don't hate these movies. Let me explain.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Everyone knows I'm a HP fan. Love the movies, and love the books even more. And even though the books are all better than the movies, I have never been more disappointed in a movie than this one. I blame the director Alfonso Cuaron completely. Although he brought the production value of the movies to greater heights, I didn't like the execution of the adaptation. I was never able to quite place my finger on the reason I didn't like it for a long time, until this summer. Brady and I were watching all of the HP movies before seeing Deathly Hallows Part 2. We were watching them in order and I realized that I didn't like the third one because it's cartoony! I feel that Cuaron was practically making fun of the Potter world. Every piece of magic shown is over the top and feels forced. It's such a shame really. The 3rd book is so great. Story wise, I don't like how they didn't build up the fear of Sirius Black, or how they changed around the events of the book, i.e. Harry getting the Firebolt, which would have helped build fear of Sirius Black. Ugh. I do watch it, because the look is great, the way the time-turner scene was done is pretty good, and the acting is better than the first two movies. But I hate how the whole feeling of the Potter-verse is so different from the rest of the films.

The Devil Wears Prada

I decided to read this when I heard it was being made into a movie and I really enjoyed the book. The story was interesting and had many moments of "Is this woman crazy?!" However the movie was really watered down. A lot of the emotion was taken out of the story. In the book Andy's personal life was a lot more difficult, which makes her work life all the more frustrating, which in turn makes Miranda Priestly even more vicious. So when I first saw this, I was pretty disappointed, which was strange when everyone else I knew seemed to really like it. I do think Meryl Streep did an amazing job as Miranda, (as if she wouldn't). I just wish she was given a few more meaty scenes. But over time, I've almost forgotten the book and I now enjoy the movie more, and I own it.

We Deserve an Ice Cream

2011-09-21T13:43:00.000-07:00

Brady got a job! It's local (hurray for not moving)! It's in television!

After hundreds of applications, a few interviews and tons of tears (from me), Brady landed his first post graduate job. He will be working as a "Web Producer" for Magic Dust Television. They are producing a new show on ABC called Right this Minute. The show has only been on for a couple of weeks but they are syndicated and the show is on all across the country. Pretty cool, huh.

I haven't posted any pictures of Oliver in a while, so here are a few from the past month. From my phone.

Just lounging around playing xbox. He's got his dad's "game face".

He loves Cheerio's. Some go in his mouth, most end up in his seat.

Having fun with Dad one night. Doesn't he look so big in those clothes? I thought he did.

It's fun going out to eat now that he can sit in the baby high chairs. He likes being able to sit at the table with the grownups.

Ollie is getting super big. He may have finally doubled his birth weight. He has two teeth! (bottoms) He does not crawl yet. He won't even scoot or army crawl. I know he wants to, but hasn't figured it out quite yet. He still loves to be held, but not cuddled. We're trying to get him to "high-five", he actually does it, but I don't think he really gets it. Sometimes he'll hand something to us if we ask for it with our hands out. He's starting to get more and more wiggly and loud at church, so that's getting interesting. So far I've only had to take him out of Sacrament Meeting early two of three times, but Sunday School and RS/EQ is another story. Just ask Brady about the time Ollie flung Brady's glasses three rows, landing at the teacher's feet.
He's just so fun.

Day 12: Adaptation

2011-09-20T14:13:00.000-07:00

I'm going to tell you what my favorite movie is, that was adapted from a book. So I have to choose something that I watched AND read the book. I tend to go through stages where I won't watch the movie until I read the book, like now, I won't watch The Help until I've read it. But usually I see the movie and think "Yay! Now I don't have to read the book!"

Out of the movies I've seen that I read the book before seeing the movie, there had only been two times that I thought "YES! Perfect!". One of those was the widely seen:

Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
I actually love the whole LOTR trilogy more than the books, but I didn't read them until after seeing The Two Towers. So The Return of the King was fresh in my mind when I saw it and I was completely satisfied. The changes they made were totally perfect and "all those endings", were in the book, so they didn't bother me at all. Peter Jackson did an amazing thing and made these iconic movies actually better the iconic books, in my opinion. I'm so excited for The Hobbit.

The second movie that blew me away was the little seen:

House of Sand and Fog
I don't remember what exactly made me want to read the book before seeing the movie. I must have just known that one of my favorite actresses at the time, Jennifer Connelly, was in this movie with Ben Kingsley, who's awesome, and it's based on a book that was an Oprah Book club book. I found it just walking around Bookman's and I must have read it in a week. I loved this book. The author does such an amazing job of not "choosing sides" and it's just plain riveting. I saw the movie soon after reading it. I remember the movie being so close to the book and feeling that emotional pull between the conflicting characters. You understand both sides of their stories; maybe his more than her's, but it's great. Great adaption. Recommended.

Day 11: It's Tired In Here!

2011-09-19T09:10:00.001-07:00

Today I'm talking about the movie(s) that make me fall asleep. Honestly, I can stay awake through any movie, but there are movies that I have put in to intentionally fall asleep to. Back in my single days, on the weekends, I would love to put on a movie and fall asleep to it. I don't do that any more. But here are movies that would put me out without fail.

Simply Irresistible

I'm almost embarrassed to say I even own this movie. It's pretty terrible. Bad acting, bad writing, weird story, so I guess it's kind of a guilty pleasure. It also can make me fall asleep in 20 minutes, 5 minutes when I'm really tired. It really has been my go to movie for night time and it's kind of a quiet movie so I know it won't wake me up.

The Manchurian Candidate
OK, so this movie is actually really good. I loved it when I first saw it so I bought it; and I haven't been able to make it through it awake since. This is a "fall asleep on the couch" movie, I don't know why, even if I'm wide awake when I start watching it, I'm asleep before it's half over. I do recommend it though, it's not a boring movie, the remake with Denzel Washington is, in my opinion, but not the original. Maybe I should try it out again.

Day 10: It's Learning Time

2011-09-16T12:30:00.000-07:00

This is going to be my last post of the favorites in a genre category, I'm getting bored with them. But I'll tell you about my favorite documentary. I should say my favorite is something moving and groundbreaking, or something that changed the world. You know the docs like, An Inconvenient Truth, or Born into the Brothels, or The Cove, or Waiting for Superman. But those aren't my favorite. I've seen them once, and I'm done with them. BUT one documentary ever, has gotten repeated viewings from me, about 4 to be exact, and that is:

King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters

Don't get chumpatized!

This movie is so much fun yet, sooo geeky. It's about the rivalry between the world record holder for the highest Donky Kong score, Billy Mitchell, and a high school science teacher, Steve Wiebe, who tries to beat the score. Mitchell is the cocky creepy guy, and Wiebe is the super nice and emotional family man. Along with some other rather random "characters" in the movie, this movie is quite enjoyable and funny.

Here are some quotes from random nerdy people.

"I don't drink, I don't smoke, I don't do drugs. I play video games, which I think is a far superior addiction to any of those other ones."

"I wanted to be a hero. I wanted to be the center of attention. I wanted the glory, I wanted the fame. I wanted the pretty girls to come up and say, 'Hi, I see that you're good at Centipede.' "

"If anybody wants to see, there's a Donkey Kong kill screen coming up."

"This rivalry is among the greatest: the Yankees and Red Sox... Hekyll and Jekyll."

The best exchange is between Steve Wiebe and his daughter, who must be the smartest person in the film:

Jillian: "I never knew that the Guinness World Record Book was so... I never knew it was so important."
Steve: "I guess a lot of people are... yeah, a lot of people read that book."
Jillian: [while directly looking at Steve] "Some people sort of ruin their lives to be in there."

My favorite quotes, that Brady and still quote to this day, especially now that we have a baby, are from Steve's little boy:

"Stop playin' Donkey Kongggggg!" "Wipe my butt!"

Other than the nerdfest, the movie is quite good, and you really feel for Steve Wiebe, (and his wife). It's fun, it's frustrating, it's a must see.

I really do like documentary's. There are some out there that I really love, but most of them are either too heart-breaking to watch again, or, although interesting, but may be boring on a second viewing, so I don't bother. But I recommend that people watch more of them, especially ones that aren't about penguins or made by Disney. You can really learn something about our interesting world.

Day 9: J'aime les Français

2011-09-15T09:17:00.000-07:00

My favorite foreign film. This was easy.

Amélie My love for everything French may be a cause for my love of this film, or maybe just because it's just so charming! Audrey Tautou is so adorable, it's like this movie was made for her. Amélie is the perfect "escape movie" for me, it completely sucks me in. This movie is so unique and well french, that when I was in film school, I planned, if I was still single at 30 years old, I would move to France and work in the film industry there. Obviously, my life didn't go that route. So luckily I still have this movie to escape to when I want to feel a little Parisian.

Day 8: Sing it!

2011-09-14T13:07:00.000-07:00

I love musicals! There, I said it. Fun times!

Favorite Old School Musical: Seven Brides for Seven BrothersI've loved Seven Brides for as long as I can remember. The music is just so good and catching. Howard Keel has an amazing voice. "Lonesome Polecat" is the best song sung by a group of men ever! And everyone should know who the cutest brother was. (Benjamin)

Favorite modern musical: Moulin Rouge!

When I first saw this with my mom, I think we sat in the theater afterward just saying again and again, "That was SO good!" We went and saw it again the next day. People tend to credit Chicago as the movie that brought back the musical, but it wasn't, it was this one, which came out over a year before. Who knew Ewan McGregor had such an amazing voice? My favorite song is "Roxanne" and "Come What May", which is the only original song in the film. I know tons of people who have tried to watch this but say they stop within the first 20 minutes because it's, well, a little crazy. People should give it another try though, because after those crazy (fun) 20 minutes, the movie is magic!

Favorite guilty pleasure musical: Newsies

During the lull of live action musical's, Disney made this. And it's AWESOME! People make fun of Christian Bale's performance, but I think that's just because of who he is NOW. I think he's great in this. The music is fun, the story is good. And Brooklyn's Spot Conlon? Yowza!

Favorite epic musical: The Sound of Music

It may be cliche to call this a favorite. But it is. I think it's Roger's and Hammerstein's finest work. I love Julie Andrews, I sometimes wish I could be her. Yup. I love the setting of this movie, seriously, Austria is gorgeous. When I was younger, I always wanted a puppet theater like the Von Trapp children had. I thought Liesl was really pretty and I wanted to look like her and have her clothes, especially the pink dress she wears when she dances with Rolfe. And the chemistry between Captain Von Trapp and Maria is priceless.

I don't think there's a single song in this movie that I don't love. My favorite is definitely "Edelweiss" or "I Have Confidence". Hmm. Now I want to go home and watch this. Have a musical day!

Day 7: Yay for cartoons!

2011-09-13T12:42:00.000-07:00

Today is my favorite animated feature. I kept thinking about the great Pixar movies like Up, and Toy Story 3, both of which made me cry; but "old school" kept jumping in front. The movies that I fell in love with as a kid. A Disney loving kid. I know there are amazing non-Disney animated movies out there. Don Bluth made some amazing one's I love, like An America Tale and The Land Before Time. But my favorite is definitely, above all animated movies:

Sleeping BeautyHere's a list of reason's why

It's the perfect fairy tale.

Princess Aurora is the best! She really does choose love over all. She would rather live her life as a peasant girl with love, than a life of a princess without her man.

Maleficent is a great villain. She has horns! And she turns into a super scary dragon!
Prince Phillip is hot!
The animation is so cool and unique. I've never seen another movie with style like this.
Her name is Aurora!

I felt I had bragging rights to having the Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland.

Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather are the best fairy grandma's ever.
I love the music

This line always makes me laugh, "Now, father, you're living in the past. This is the 14th century!"

I could go on, but I won't. I don't know if anything will ever replace this as my favorite. It's just lovely.

Past Times: A day we all remember

2011-09-12T09:51:00.000-07:00

Tempe Beach Park, Sept 10, 2011. One flag for every person lost Sept. 11, 2001.

So September 11, 2011 is here, yesterday. We remember where we were on that day.

Nicole:
I was at EAC. I remember being woken up by my alarm, which was always set to the radio. It was going off and I kept hearing news type dialogue, but being groggy and thinking it was just a commercial, I kept hitting snooze. I may have hit snooze 3 times before my roommate, Becca, came into my room. She told me that the World Trade Center has been bombed, or something of that sort. That got me out of bed. She said that her and my other roommate Emelle were going to her boyfriends house to watch the news, (we didn't have cable TV). So we immediately went over in our pj's. On the way there, listening to the news, the first tower fell. We saw the second tower fall on TV. We watched in stunned silence for about an hour, maybe two, or more.

My classes were canceled that day. The institute still held devotional, just like every Tuesday. It was somewhat comforting to get dressed up and listen to some inspiring words, although I don't remember what was talked about. It was a quiet day. I did a lot of wandering around not knowing what to do. I think we went back to Vern's house (Becca's bf, now husband) to watch Pres. Bush speak, but I don't remember the actual time of day everything came about. I remember my mom called me that evening, and it felt good to talk to her, I was grateful for my family living close to me knowing that they were safe.

Brady:
I remember waking up to my alarm and showering and getting ready for school. It was just another day as far as I knew. I headed out of my room and walked by my parents room to get some breakfast. I saw mom sitting on the edge of her bed watching TV, I said "Hi" and mom told me to come watch the TV. I didn't really know what I was watching, I just saw one of the Trade Towers on fire. I asked what was happening, but mom just thought it was a fire. They announced that it was a plane that had hit the tower, but not much else.

I watched for a half-hour and realized I was going to be late for early morning seminary. So I grabbed some cereal really quickly and headed out the door. I listened to the radio all the way to the church building. On my way there the second tower was hit. I couldn't believe it. I thought the first was an accident, but a second? I was driving with my mouth open for like 3 miles. Do you know those time when you arrive someplace, but don't really remember the process of getting there? This was one of those times.

I went into my seminary class and immediately asked what everyone knew about what was going on. Nobody knew anything more than I did. I asked the teacher what we should do. She told us to sit down and we sat through the whole lesson like the nothing was going on. After about a half hour one of the students came in late, and announced that the first tower had fallen. All of the students started asking questions and talking out loud. The teacher insisted we finish the lesson. Everybody was pretty antsy to go.

I arrived at school. Usually the way to school was crowded with crazy teenage drivers, but today was clear. Even the parking lot was nearly empty, which was very unusual for my school of 1700 students. When I walked into my first class for the day, there was maybe 5 or 6 kids. The TV was on CNN, and we sat there for an hour and watched. By the time I was in class the second tower had fallen down. After that the principal came on the intercom and told us to go to our home period classrooms, and to stay there.

I spent the majority of the day sitting watching TV. I think that was probably the only day that my mom would have said it would have been ok to sit and watch TV all day.

I really didn't know what to think. There was all of this going on and all I could seem to do was watch TV. It was a pretty shocking. Later that day I heard that they had put anti-aircraft guns on the Hoover Dam and around the Palo Verde Nuclear Power Plant. It was scary to think that they would consider shooting planes out of the sky to save some power plants.

I still don't know what I feel about those days, and its hard to put those feelings in writing. That's all that I have to say about that.

Day 6: I don't like this

2011-09-09T09:17:00.000-07:00

Today is my favorite horror movie. I don't like horror movies. They do their job too well and they, well, scare me! I don't like being scared. I don't like the surprise jumps. Horror movies are not fun to me.

I've seen some, of course, and I'm sure I'll see more someday, but it won't be completely willingly.

Do zombie movies count as horror movies? Because I like Zombieland.

Is it too funny to be considered here? I thought it was really fun. I only jumped once and it was at the beginning, so by the end, I had forgiven it for that.

OK. I know there are well made horror movies, but I'm not going to be a good judge.

Day 5: Explosion!

2011-09-08T08:45:00.001-07:00

Favorite action. Hmm... This one is a little tough. Should I consider the "adventure" genre as well, since they are usually lumped together? I think I'll just keep it simple and stick to action movies.

My favorite action movie(s) is/are:

The Bourne Trilogy

I. Love. These. Movies. The coolest fight scenes. (rolled up magazine, anyone?) The coolest car chases. The coolest character! Sigh. I love Matt Damon. I know a lot of people complain about the shaky cam in these movies but it doesn't bother me at all. In fact, I think it works great for these films. These movies have a great story, which is a rarity in action movies, and you can't help but root for Jason Bourne. Great fun.

I must mention my favorite action/comedy.

Hot Fuzz

This movie is so stinkin' hilarious. Brady and I watch this probably every other month. It spoofs on action movie cliches without being a spoofy movie. Simon Pegg and Nick Frost are amazing together. I didn't mention it as one of my favorite comedy's, but it probably is.

Happy 7 months

2011-09-02T10:58:00.000-07:00

For Ollie's 7 month birthday, we gave him a surgery. We needed to get a little something fixed. Besides the first 20 minutes after coming off the anesthesia, he did amazing and was in a good mood all day, even today he's been great. He was pretty loopy when we got home yesterday, which was kind of funny, and his face was a little puffy.

Pre-surgery in his little gown.

I'm grateful for modern medicine, good medication and priesthood blessings.

Day 4: Oh the Drama!

2011-08-31T15:10:00.000-07:00

I have to choose a favorite drama. This is uber difficult. Really, I should say Forrest Gump is my favorite drama, since it is my favorite movie, but that's no fun. I already talked about that movie. I love me a drama. It's probably my favorite genre. I love that story and character tends to be focused on in making these movies (or should be), and sometimes, if done well, really evokes some emotion. Well I decided to go through the movies that I actually own and list the one's I really love and can't decide should be the 2nd best, to Forrest Gump. I tried to stick to the ones that tend to make me cry. I also left off those that focused on a love story. And war movies.

Million Dollar Baby

An ugly cry movie.

Frost/Nixon

I didn't know anything about this story when I first saw it. I was amazed how much suspense it actually had.

The King's Speech

My favorite movie of 2010.

The Godfather

I'm one of the few people who like this first movie in the Godfather series more than Part 2. I think I like Marlon Brando's preformance too much.

Mr. Holland's Opus

Probably the first movie I really cried to when I was 13 or 14.

The Shawshank Redemption

Who doesn't get sucked in to this movie when channel surfing past TNT? I know I do. And so does my grandpa.

To Kill a Mockingbird

Oh, Atticus. I love...

On the Waterfront

Again, Marlon Brando amazes me. This is one of those movies I was sure would be boring, I don't know why, but I loved it. I'm pretty sure Martin Scorsese pulls inspiration from this movie.

Ah man, now I'm thinking of even more movies, like The Departed. So I must stop.

Pottermore!

2011-08-30T10:03:00.000-07:00

A break from the list for two reasons. One: I can't think of a movie for today's list item. Two: I must blog about Pottermore!

So a little while ago, I posted the video of J.K. Rowling revealing the upcoming Pottermore website. I said "Eh". But being the somewhat Potterhead I am, I decided to try to take up the challenge and try to get in early. And succeeded! Which is a story in itself. So I'm one of the lucky 1st million people to get to explore the site, heck, I'm one of the lucky 1st 100,000 people to get in. I got my welcome email over a week ago and went through the whole first book, which is all that's available in the beta site.

What Pottermore is: A companion website for the books of Harry Potter. It's not a game, which a lot of people on there, I noticed, seem to believe. It's interactive so you do get to explore, a little, and collect things, which I haven't figured out the meaning of my collected stuff yet.

As you "explore" each chapter of the book, you unlock added material and story written by JK. That's my favorite part, getting back story of the teachers and places and even the meaning behind the names of some of the characters. She had a lot of back story for Professor McGonagall, and it's pretty awesome.

Another fun part is getting your own wand and getting sorted into the houses. They ask some questions that actually take a little thought and pondering, so you get what best suits you. Pretty fun. My wand is: Sycamore wood, Unicorn hair core, 13 3/4 in., Reasonably supple. Cool huh.

The house I was sorted into was, Ravenclaw! I was pretty stoked. I always imagined that I would be in that house. FYI: Ravenclaw has the most house points right now. :)

So far, you get house points by exploring through the books, making potions, and dueling (which I haven't done). I've only earned 36 house points.

Overall, I think they will continue to make little changes to make the site better, and even though I enjoyed getting my wand and getting sorted, I'm more interested in the added reading material than the "game" element of the site. But I guess there's something for everyone.

Day 3, Laughing times ahead.

2011-08-29T08:42:00.000-07:00

Today is my favorite comedy. This one was easy for me to figure out, but I'm mentioning two anyways. These are movies that I laugh at every time I watch them, even after many viewings.

Wayne's World

I know this movie is sooo 1992, but the laughs deliver great today, in my opinion. Plus it's immature, but it's not so much potty humor, so I really like this kind of immature humor. There are amazing quotes that make me giggle every time I watch this movie.

Stacy: Well, don't you want to open your present?
Wayne: If it's a severed head I'm going to be very upset.
Stacy: Open it.
Wayne: OK. What is it?
Stacy: It's a gun rack.
Wayne: A gun rack... a gun rack. I don't even own *a* gun, let alone many guns that would necessitate an entire rack. What am I gonna do... with a gun rack?

Wayne: I once thought I had mono for an entire year. It turned out I was just really bored.

Wayne: Hi. I'm in Delaware.

This movie also reminded us that Bohemian Rhapsody makes for a great road trip song, which is a staple if Sarah and I are driving anywhere together. Wayne's World moves are mandatory.

I didn't see Wayne's World until I was in college, but I remember when it came out. I was in Safford along with a bunch of other family. All of the boy cousins, who were all older, went to go see this movie. Since it was PG-13, none of the girls got to go (I was 9 at the time). I was pretty jealous, maybe not because I necessarily wanted to see it, probably just because since my teenage cousins wanted to see it, it must be cool! They quoted it all day after they got back.

Clue

Like Wayne's World, I didn't see this movie until I was in college, which is probably a good thing because I don't think I would have gotten it at a young age. My love for Clue runs deep. I love the absurdity of this movie. I don't even know what to say to convey my admiration. Here some quotes of awesome exchanges.

The Motorist: Where is it?
Wadsworth: What? The body?
The Motorist: The phone. What body?
Wadsworth: There's no body. Nobody. There's-there's nobody in the study.

Mr. Green: So it was you. I was going to expose you.
Wadsworth: I know. So I choose to expose myself.
Colonel Mustard: Please, there are ladies present!

Wadsworth: Miss Scarlet seized the opportunity, and under cover of darkness, got to the library, where she hit the cop whom she'd been bribing on the head with the lead pipe. True or false?
Miss Scarlet: [impressed] True! Who are you, Perry Mason?

Wadsworth: Sorry, didn't mean to frighten you.
Mr. Green: You're a bit late for that! I hate it when he does that.
Mrs. White: Ahhh!

Mrs. White: [shatters glass] PLEASE!

Wadsworth: The game's up, Scarlet. There are no more bullets left in that gun.
Miss Scarlet: Oh, come on, you don't think I'm gonna fall for that old trick?
Wadsworth: It's not a trick. There was one shot at Mr. Boddy in the Study; two for the chandelier; two at the Lounge door and one for the singing telegram.
Miss Scarlet: That's not six.
Wadsworth: One plus two plus two plus one.
Miss Scarlet: Uh-uh, there was only one shot that got the chandelier. That's one plus two plus *one* plus one.
Wadsworth: Even if you were right, that would be one plus one plus two plus one, not one plus *two* plus one plus one.
Miss Scarlet: Okay, fine. One plus two plus one... Shut up! The point is, there is one bullet left in this gun and guess who's gonna get it!

My favorite character by far is Mrs. White, played awesomely by Madeline Kahn. Her character is so calm and speaks quietly. Even when she's expressing her hatred for Yvette her voice doesn't raise, just hilarity. And in case you didn't catch it, I quoted her in the below post about The Wedding Date. The only time Mrs. White really gets loud is when she yells "PLEASE!" at a rather random moment in the movie. Love her. And love this movie.

Flames!

Day two! Frustrations ahead!

2011-08-26T10:35:00.000-07:00

Day two is, my least favorite movie.

I don't really have a least favorite. Besides, "least favorite" is like saying, "it's on the bottom of my favorites list, but is still a favorite". So here I have a list of movies I hate and was sorely disappointed in, and that I thought of at this time. I know I'll leave off some.

I'm not going to list movies that are obviously bad like, The Smurfs, I'm going to try to stick to movies that maybe a lot of people like or are critically acclaimed, you know, like the expectations were up and then came CRASHING down. In my humble opinion.

I like to describe Sideways as "awful people, doing awful things, and getting away with it." I saw this movie alone at the theater, I was trying to see all the Best Picture nominees. I thought it would be a nice movie with a cute love story set in some beautiful wine country. Nope! It's awful.

This is the 3rd Pirate movie. I didn't even like the 2nd one. 1st one, amazing. Recently, Brady and I watched all of these movies again since Brady had played the Lego video game, and I realized that I couldn't even remember the movies. So we borrowed them from Sarah, who should be embarrassed to own them, and boy was I frustrated. The 2nd one I got through ok, because it had some funny moments. However, At World's End frustrated me beyond belief. Could there be any more plot holes? Story lines? Useless characters?

Sorry Sofia Coppola, but I do not like your movies. During this whole movie, I was just waiting for something worth watching to happen. So boring and so glad it didn't win best picture.

Look another best picture nominee. Left the theater feeling, blah. There was a bunch of story lines that I didn't care about and didn't even know how they were connected, until some throw away line at the end of the movie. After seeing this movie, Evan, Paula and I rented Stick It, yeah, the gymnastics movie, and thoroughly enjoyed it. That's how bad Babal was.

I saved the best for last. THE WEDDING DATE. Sarah drug me and my mom to this. Ooh. I hated it SO much... it it the it, flame, flames. Flames! One the side of my face. Breathing, breathle heaving breaths. Heathing...

Let's do this! Day 1.

2011-08-25T13:36:00.000-07:00

OK. I'm jumping on the "30 Day Challenge" wagon. However, I decided to do a different one than the one most people are doing and found one that's all about movies. (Did I just say "one" a lot?) I can blog about movies. Why not?!

I know I may skip days and all, so I won't update everyday. Just fair warning (mom). And I'm not giving the list; what's the fun in that? Plus I may pull from two different lists. I'm making this up as I go.

But day 1 is.... my favorite movie!

Before I start. Let's just say I have a hard time picking just one in "favorites". I love movies too much and I like to talk about multiples. That being said...

Forrest Gump!

Big surprise, huh. I was always a big Tom Hanks fan, but after seeing this movie, no actor will ever replace him on the top of my list. Ever.

Is there a more joyful moment than the scene where Forrest sees Lt. Dan on the dock and he gleefully waves and jumps from his shrimp boat (still waving), to swim to Lt. Dan? I smile thinking about those two together.

I must mention the movie that replaced Forrest Gump for about 2 months after I first saw it.

The Third ManThis movie sucks me in every time. Maybe it's the awesome writing, or Orson Welles, or that zither music, or a combination of every thing, but I love it.

The Third Man may had been my favorite when I first saw it, but when the dust settled after my shock of the awesomeness, Forrest still gets to me as a character and I love him too much to replace.

6 months

2011-08-13T07:46:00.000-07:00

I can't believe we have a 6 month old. I often marvel at how much Oliver has changed since birth. He's amazing and makes us so happy and he makes us laugh every day.

These days:

He sticks out his tongue all the time.

Still won't roll in a complete circle.

Sits up without support, but still falls over a lot, he doesn't like that.

Usually goes to sleep by 9pm.

Loves touching our faces, especially dad's scruffy chin.

Eats all his veggies, his favorite is sweet potatoes.

Playes with his feet a lot, especially when wearing socks.

Doesn't like it when someone leaves the room.

Wants to play with everything mom and dad play with: phones, remotes, xbox controller, keyboards, etc.

Favorite toy right now is a plastic mirror that came with his play mat.

Loves baths and splashing like crazy with his legs.

Sleeps on his left side.

Very ticklish on his back. (odd)

Can out-whine anybody.

Claps his hands together, but doesn't understand what this means, of course.

We took him swimming for the first time. He seemed unsure about it most of the time but never was upset about it, only when his face hit the water.

Wrinkly feet!

I took pictures for his 6 month birthday. Just a quick 5 minute shoot, and I think they turned out pretty good.
Height: 27 1/4 in. 75%
Weight: 16lbs 5ozs. 25%

Dance!

2011-08-12T10:15:00.000-07:00

Don't you love it when you're favorite dancer from the very beginning actually wins the competition? I do. And that's never happened to me before. I was pretty happy that Melanie won "So You Think You Can Dance". She was amazing.I love this show. This is the only show I watched this summer. (Yay, no cable) Brady was super wonderful in letting me watch it, with no complaints. (Yay, awesome husand) This is the only competition show I watch. Oh that's a lie; we watch "Top Shot" online, which started this week.

I want to post all of my favorite dances from the show so I can watch them whenever I want to. But that may be over kill because I have a hard time choosing just a few, especially since I want to include routines from previous seasons. Let me stew on this for a moment....

What the heck. It's my blog. And if I want to post 10 videos of dancing. I'm gonna do it.

The first two are my favorites from Melanie and Marko (my other fav).

This one just made me so happy. Who new a Celine Dion song could work so well.

I loved this one with Tadd and Lauren F. It's the cool routine of the season.

Sasha and tWitch. Love tWitch!

Even though I didn't see season 7, I love tWitch, here's one from last season with Alex Wong. I couldn't embed it so you must click to watch. Alex Wong was a ballet dancer! Crazy fun times!

Here is my favorite from Season 3. Lacey and Danny's samba.

Another fav from Season 3. Jaimie and Hok. Wade Robson, please come back and choreograph again.

So that's it, for now. I couldn't think of favorite group routines.

Oliver's 6 month pictures, coming soon.

Do you ever...

2011-08-08T12:37:00.000-07:00

want to blog, just so you can change the top post? I do. I'm already tired of seeing the pictures in this Chocolate Rain post. I'm going to try to amend that soon. Hopefully tonight. If I have time.

Chocolate Rain

2011-07-30T12:48:00.000-07:00

We've come to a milestone. I'm no longer breastfeeding Oliver. It was a long 5 and half months. I never liked doing it, but it was free and healthy for Oliver so I did it. I felt it was time to stop when it became impossible to keep up with the amount he needed. And he would cry when I did nurse him. It was awful. But we're all happy now. The formula is working for us, and it's nice not having to carry a pump to work.

While nursing, there was one thing I could not eat, under any circumstances; Chocolate. Once of my favorite things. If I did eat it, Ollie would cry for about 2 hours straight exactly 24 hours later. I tried a couple times, to get it back in my diet, but it was always a fail, Ollie would not tolerate it. I did sneak a bite of a candy bar once in a blue moon, but I was always nervous to eat more than that bite.

So last weekend, in honor of Oliver weaned, I had my "Chocolate Rain" weekend.

I didn't go as crazy as it may sound at first. Here's the proof.

We first went to dinner so I could have my first Dr. Pepper in 6 months. Yes, I could have been drinking DP, but I didn't. Don't ask. There isn't any logic outside of my head to the reason why I didn't drink any.First sip! Mmm...

First chocolaty stop was for an awesome ice cream sundae at the "Sugar Bowl".
Chocolate ice cream, chocolate syrup, sprinkled with malt. It was the perfect first chocolate thing to eat after so long.

The next morning I had nutella toast for breakfast.

Reese's for a mid-day snack.

I ate all four, because I CAN!

Hot chocolate and toast the following morning.

Finished off with my favorite M&M Blizzard from DQ.

Best Chocolate Rain Weekend ever!

Thank you Harry Potter

2011-07-23T10:07:00.001-07:00

Thank you J.K. Rowling for writing an amazing series of books that I can read, and have read, over and over again.

Thank you for giving the movie geek in me, something to look forward to for 10 years.

Thank you David Yates, for making the last half of the series awesome.

Thank you Alfonso Cuaron, for changing the look of the movie, but also, for only directing one of them.

Thank you Rupert Grint. You were perfection.

Thank you Daniel Radcliffe for making me love Rupert even more with this quote, “I’ve never been to Rupert’s house, but I’ve always imagined it to be a little like Pee-wee Herman’s home. I just picture him waking up every morning, then sliding down a waterslide to the breakfast table.”

Thank you Alan Rickman. You were captivatingly perfect. (That's a word, right?)

Thank you for not including S.P.E.W in the movies.

Thank you for Oliver Wood

Thank you Voldemort, for giving us the funniest moment in Harry Potter movie history.

Thank you Robbie Coltrane, for playing Hagrid exactly as I imagined him.

Thank you John Williams for that amazing theme.

Thank you to the entire cast of the movies, for staying around for all 8 of them.

Thank you Richard Harris. You will always be Dumbeldore to me.

Thank you Michael Gambon. You will always be Hippie Dumbledore to me. (You did it with style).

Thank you Daniel Radcliffe, you won’t mind if I call you “Harry Potter” for the rest of your life, do you?

Buckleys!!

2011-07-04T10:17:00.001-07:00

Last weekend, we attended the first Buckley Family Reunion, ever! It was a blast to see everyone that I hadn't seen in years and most Brady had never met at all.

We stayed at Grandma and Grandpa Bingham's, it's awesome having my grandparents live a few houses away from each other.Grandpa loved Ollie. It took Oliver a couple of minutes to look at him. So funny.

In the morning we head over to Grandma Buckley's house.

Oliver was the youngest one there. His cousin, Hazel was born only 3 days before Oliver, but she may have had 5 pounds on him. So cute.

We had pancakes for breakfast, with chocolate chips, of course. We socialized and played a "get to know you" game. We had a lunch of KFC, which is a Mt. Graham lunch tradition (sadly the mountain was closed), and later played a candybar exchange game. I ended up with a Dark Chocolate Milky Way. Sadly I couldn't eat anything because Oliver won't let me eat chocolate, but I snuck a single Reese's Peanut Butter Cup offered by Mike.

After a dinner of hamburger and hotdogs, people started winding down and taking off. Those of us that stayed over night went to church with grandma.

It was a great weekend, we have to do this again!

Little bro, Quincy and I

Ladder Ball?

All the little girls playing on the surprising small slip 'n' slide.

Kristen, Sarah and Whitney

Steve telling awesome childhood stories.
Dad on grill duty.

Maverick at his finest!

Grandma enjoying the fruits of her labor!

Family Pictures!

Grandma with her kiddos! Steve, Eric, Stacey, Midge.

With the spouses, sans Uncle John. Donna, Valerie, Danny.

The Grandkids! L to R: Kristen, Kimberly, Sarah (holding sleeping Ollie), Bethany, Sean, Nicole, Jeremy, Zach, Abbey , Maverick, Quincy, Sam

The Great Grandkids. Molly, Sonny, Avery, Ollie, Halle, Kate, Lucy, Maddie, Hazel.

The whole fam!

His First Father's Day

2011-06-27T12:30:00.000-07:00

We had a great first Father's day here. Actually the whole weekend was pretty great. It started out on Friday. Brady and I wanted to see Super 8. Well, a couple weekends ago, we went and saw Pirates of the Caribbean 4 at the drive-in and took Oliver with us, (no babysitter required) and it was a pretty good time. Brady looked up the times for Super 8 and awesome enough, it was playing as a double feature with Kung Fu Panda 2! We wanted to to see both of them, so we went. Oliver did great. He fell asleep during Kung Fu Panda and slept in the back of the car through all of Super 8. And both movies were enjoyable.

Saturday was a lazy day. I went shopping for Brady's dad's day gift and took Ollie with me to give him some alone time for a couple of hours, since a stay-at-home dad deserves a break every once and a while.

Sunday was fun, we had a lazy morning and Brady and I had a delicious breakfast of sticky buns. We had the wrong pan to cook them in, but they tasted perfect. Delish!As for gifts, we gave Brady his first official Father's Day Tie! I would've love to say that Oliver helped pick it out. But he was sleeping when we were at the store. I also splurged a little and got him the LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean video game. It something we can play together.

After church, we went up to Scottsdale and had dinner with the Gillman's. It was a good day and Brady said he had a great father's day.

Brady is an amazing dad. Staying home with Oliver was not something we had planned for Brady, but our circumstances has changed our plans for both of us, and although it's hard sometimes, we're surviving and Oliver is doing great. Oliver and I are so lucky to have Brady around to help us when we need him. No words can express how much I love him and appreciate all he does for our little family. He really is my best friend, I'm pretty sure he's Ollie's best friend as well.

Eh...

2011-06-23T08:33:00.000-07:00

This better be good...

2011-06-16T13:40:00.000-07:00

Be sure to click on the owls!

Links of Awesomeness!

2011-06-14T08:03:00.000-07:00

A few days ago, Brady and I came across a blog and had a ton of fun looking at it and figuring out what each picture is from. You'll see what I mean. Check it out here.

Also, for all Harry Potter fans, posters that should bring you joy here!

Enjoy!

No catch up

2011-06-09T12:18:00.000-07:00

Instead of catching you up with a bunch of stories, I'll just put up some pictures of recent happenings that I actually took pictures of.

My birthday

Brady took me mini golfing. I may, or may not, have been a little excited.

Moving
Sarah helped out and we tried on some of Brady's hats in the process.

We went to Tucson spontaneously (just for food)

Molinas!

Eegees!

Oliver Right now:

Loves to kick his legs like crazy when he sits in his bouncer.
He's ticklish in his ribs.
Loves to look at books.
Loves to touch everything in front of him, especially paper.
Drools, a LOT (I'm nervous for the teething stage).
Lost his voice recently, and is slowly getting it back.
Loves to look at himself in the mirror.
Rolls from his back to tummy. But gets mad that he can't roll back, although I've seen him do it once.
Has slept though the night a bunch of times (7 hours), but isn't consistent.
Is 26 1/2 in. long (90% percentile)
Is 12lbs 11ozs (10% percentile). The doc thinks he's under weight since he used to be 75% percentile in weight. So we're starting solid foods tonight. Dr.'s orders!

He kicks his feet so much when he's happy that it's hard to get a focused picture.

He likes his tummy more when he can look at himself in the mirror.

Brady tried "doing his hair" one day after a bath.

He sucks in his bottom lip a lot...

And thinks it's funny.

This is how he looks when he's making loud noises.

These last two pictures crack me up!

Movin' On

2011-05-19T07:55:00.000-07:00

We moved! It was stressful and fast and it all came together nicely in the end.

When looking for an apartment, we wanted to stay in our church ward. We were finally, after almost 3 years, finding our niche and I thought one less change in my life would make the move easier. We looked and looked, but man, we live in the worst ward boundaries if you don't want to buy a $250,000 house. Nothing worked out in the area so my biggest priority took over: We have to stay close enough to my work so I can come home at lunch to see my baby.

I remembered that my friend/old roommate Julie lived in an apartment in an area which is close to my work so I asked her about it. She highly recommended it so I took my mom and Sarah with me to check it out. The layout was awesome, the size was perfect and the price was better than another apartment in Tempe that we had looked at and were considering.

After much debating, praying and pondering, on my part, and realizing we don't have to live on the 3rd floor, but the 2nd, which was even cheaper, we took it.

So far, the move has been a good one. Brady is happy to be further away from the ASU crowd. Oliver is finally sleeping in his own room. It only takes me 6-7 minutes to get to work, so more time with my baby. Plus the first impression of our new ward has been very good.

Big BIG Thank You to everyone that helped us move: Our Alameda ward friends, Derrelyn, Brad, and Justin, sister Sarah, and huge thanks to my wonderful in-laws, we definitely wouldn't have been able to do it without them ( I don't know how I got so lucky).

I'll talk about Oliver real quick, since he makes me happy. He is getting so big and a personality is starting to show. He's laughing more often and smiling all the time, except after 8pm. He gets super cranky at that time until he finally goes to sleep. He used to be pretty quiet until a few days ago, he's really starting to use his voice and yell out these loud noises. It's so cute and it cracks us up.

Ollie is now rolling over, well, he's going from his back to his tummy, and since he hates being on his tummy, he starts to cry when he gets there. But right when we put him on his back, he rolls over again and starts crying. I don't know why babies torture themselves, but I guess he's trying to get mobile.

Another big milestone, Oliver stopped crying in the car! For months now, whenever he was put in the car, he would cry and cry until we got to our destination. But he's gotten so much better recently. I think it's because he uses his hands now, so we can put a toy in his lap and he plays with that and it distracts him. Whew! We made it through that stage.

Pictureless post, but we have the internet again, so I'll have to get some recent pictures uploaded soon.

What a WEEK I'm having!

2011-04-30T17:12:00.000-07:00

This quote (in your best Eugene Levy voice) went through my mind a few times in the past couple days. I went back to work last week. It was hard leaving little Ollie. I cried for about week before and then the day of. Then I was fine the 2nd day. But the third day, it was worse than the 1st day. I bawled a lot. I'm now doing better. It's taking some adjusting, but I take comfort in knowing that it's only temporary, and that Brady is taking good care of him while I'm away. I'm lucky to have good coworkers that have made the transition easy for me.

On Friday, we found out that we need to move from our condo within the next 2 weeks. Yikes! We're on the hunt for an affordable apartment. We decided that we want to stay within our ward boundries since having a baby has gotten us some attention with the ward members. But if we can't find anything, I don't know where we'd go. Oh the pressure!

Then on Saturday, I threw my back out! It hurt so bad. I had no idea it felt like this. Much like back labor, surprisingly. I was lucky that it was only one side of my back, therefore I could walk. I didn't go to the hospital or anything, but I highly considered it. I just didn't get any sleep on Saturday night and finally was able to sleep off and on all Sunday. Brady was Super Dad/Husband and had to take care of Oliver since I couldn't hold him for longer than to feed him. I'm feeling better today, so I'm at work and just walking around a lot slower than normal.

So that was my week, a lot of tears were shed (by me), and we have big changes ahead for us.

Does everyone want to see a blurry picture of Oliver? Here ya go.

As of yesterday, he's 3 months old! We felt like he's been in our family for over a year. He's exhausing sometimes and always wants to be held. Won't be to great when there's packing to do. But we love him anyways.

He's got his daddy's eyes!

2011-04-21T14:44:00.000-07:00

Little Piggie

2011-04-12T13:48:00.001-07:00

Meet Little Piggie. He sits above Oliver's head on his bouncer. Oliver just loves Little Piggie. He will stare at him, talk to him, and smile at him for a long time. A long time means 20 minutes for Oliver. Then in the middle of a conversation, Little Piggie will say something that upsets Oliver. Oliver will continue to converse, but ends up in tears. It's pretty predictable. Little Piggie is kind of bully.

We've been going great here at the Gillman house lately. Brady had his birthday on the 7th. I bought him a game, DICEcapades, which is pretty fun, even for 2 people. I also called on the babysitter, Sarah, and we went out to dinner to Oreganos and got some ice cream.

Brady has been keeping busy with various video projects. He even filmed a wedding this weekend. His job search is getting better and I feel he'll get something he wants sooner, rather than later. Mostly we're in waiting mode.

I've been doing good and love being a mom to our Ollie. He's been changing a lot and is easy to smile and cuddle. He likes watching TV, I don't think that's a good thing, but at night it's hard to make him happily turn away from it. During the day he loves to have the TV off and just have one-on-one mom time. I'll turn on some music and sing to him, he loves that. And I'll go on a walk about every other day. He doesn't actually love that, but he falls asleep in the stroller, and it feels good for me to get outside.

A perk to being a stay-at-home mom(which, really, I'm not), is being able to get visiting teaching done in the middle of the day. It was fun walking stroller brigade style with my VT companion to one of our girls homes. I seem to feel more social during daylight hours.

Anyways, I want to share some more photos. Oliver is now able to use his bumbo, he looks so cute in it, and I think he actually likes sitting in his own chair.

First time in the bumbo.

A little tummy time.

Smiley weekend

2011-03-29T14:26:00.000-07:00

I finally got the big grin picture!

Oliver has seriously won me over. He's changing every day and finding his little voice. I love talking to him and him coo back to me.

This weekend we went to Miami to visit my mom (Gigi), and to show off Ollie to the hometown folk at church and at my mom's school. It was fun. Everyone loved him and he charmed them all. The weekend was also good for Brady and me. We were able to get a little more sleep with mom's help and eat delicious food at Guayo's and the Copper Bistro. It was very relaxing and Brady was able to be handy and fix mom's door. He loves doing stuff like that.

Oliver is 8 weeks today! And so stinkin' CUTE! Look at that picture!

The Blessing!

2011-03-22T18:04:00.000-07:00

Oliver's blessing day was on March 13. Everything went great and he didn't cry at all. We also loved having all of our family there, and some good friends, to support us.

Note: I know Oliver looks like a total nerd in those pants.

With all my grandparents, the great grandparents

With friends Katharine and Brian

With Aunt Sarah

Uncle Quincy

Uncle Maverick

Grandpa Buckley

Oliver also had a Dr. visit that week. He weighed 11lbs. 5.5 oz., the 75% percentile, and is 24 1/2 in. long, the 97% percentile! Yeah, he's tall.

I also had a Dr. appointment. I've lost 20 lbs since the birth, only 20 to go to get to my pre-preggo weight. *sigh* Oh, and my midwife said that I'm her hero. Yeah me. :)

He's 4 weeks old! One month?...

2011-03-01T14:53:00.000-08:00

Oliver is 4 weeks old today. One month I guess, one short February month. When I asked him today "how old are you?" He gave me this:

He's trying to say "one". See?

He's been doing great and is getting better with the sleep at night thing, except last night. He only wanted to scream at our faces last night. Anyways, he's keeping us on our toes and very busy. Parenthood is definitely a full time job. We're getting better at leaving the house, but sometimes we forget things, like a stroller. A mistake we'll never make again.

Oliver continues to get cuter every day. Shocker I know, he's already very stinkin' adorable. He's beginning to smile! It's so cute, and it doesn't happen a whole lot so I don't have a picture to prove it, but it won't be long before I fill my camera's memory card full of his toothless grin. And he has dimples! Eek! Something to melt the ladies hearts with. You're welcome ladies. ;)

I don't have much more new news about Oliver or us, so here are some pictures.

Dad doing what dad does best, make the kid sleep!

At church for the first time. Blue eyes!

Sleeping after his lunch on Sunday.

Just chillin on a Monday afternoon.

So I mentioned before that Oliver has to sleep in his bouncer because of his reflux. Well we never buckled him in because he doesn't move enough to fall out or anything. We'll maybe it's time to start buckling because yesterday morning, Brady found him like this:
How funny is that? I thought it was hilarious.

As promised, here are a few pictures I took when he was about 2 weeks old. He never really acted like a newborn, so I didn't get the pictures that I had hoped for and I couldn't get elaborate at all like I did with my friend Chandra's baby pictures I did last year. This first picture is a testament to how the shoot went.
The face that keeps me awake at night.

Eating his hand, that's so Oliver!

My favorite

He's 3 weeks old!

2011-02-22T12:20:00.000-08:00

Oliver is 3 weeks old today. Sometimes I feel that the time has flown by so far. Other days I feel it's going really slow. The days have blurred together because of the lack of sleep and with the issues Oliver has had. Let me explain:

Oliver had trouble pooping. Not something that anyone wants to read about on a blog, but it's true. By the time Oliver was 2 weeks and 3 days old, he had only poo'd like 6 times in his whole life; not good when you eat every 2 hours. We went to the Dr. a couple of times, and even had an x-ray done, and basically he was just really really constipated. Poor baby. He was in such pain and he cried all the time, which led to me crying all the time. But after an enema and some Miralax for a few days, he's pooing like normal, and is a much calmer baby. He also has reflux. This makes sleeping interesting. He has to be upright to sleep. If we place him on his back, he wakes up 5 minutes later crying. So his bed has been his bouncer, or laying on one of us (not our favorite). We are giving him medicine for the reflux, but we aren't seeing any improvement yet.

Sleeping in his bouncer bed.

Brady and I can't get over how cute he is. He has big expressive eyes. I think they will end up being blue like his dad's. He has kissable full lips, and cute pointy chin with chubby cheeks. He loves to have his hands up by his face, he must have had his hands by his face while in the womb.

Voluptuous lips

We started our cloth diapering on Sunday. So far it's been going great. I have to admit, as the disposables we had were running out, I was getting nervous, but after the first day, I am on board. Brady, although always supportive, took a couple days to feel ok about it. He was finally on board when the first diaper laundry was done, and they actually came out looking good as new. When we first put the diaper on, we were a little blown away how bulky it was on him, but we had to laugh at his ghetto booty.

I like big butts

After I switched the bigger/thicker inserts for the slimmer newborn size ones (oops), they fit a lot better and his clothes still fit him.

As for me, I'm still adjusting. The baby blues hit me kind of hard when he was a week old. I cried at the drop of hat. Breastfeeding wasn't enjoyable, like I heard it could be, I felt almost like I was merely a milk machine. Plus with all the crying and lack of sleep, I had a hard time with it. Luckily I have the best husband ever and he was always willing to take Oliver during his worst crying fits and watch him for a few hours so I could get some sleep. The blues have finally passed and I'm a much happier mom now.

Brady has been an excellent dad. He's very helpful to me and is able to soothe Oliver better than I can. I get a little jealous over it, but they are so cute together.

First time wearing jeans. His face expressions crack me up.

Sleeping with his hand on his face, that's so Oliver!

All of these pictures were from my phone. I tried doing a newborn photo shoot, but Oliver never acted like a newborn, so it was a total failure. I'll later post what pictures I did get, after I edit them.

Oliver is here!

2011-02-12T15:25:00.000-08:00

Let's start with a picture of our cutie! You know you want to see him.

So I debated writing the birth story down, and I decided to just do it, so here it is.

It begins on Monday, one week past my due date. I woke up that morning, again, not in labor, and sadly went to work. I get the usual "you're still here?" comments at work, which always makes me feel good. Yes, sarcasm. I only worked half the day since I had a doctors appointment.

We head to the appointment and we do a non-stress test. Oliver was doing great. They come in and ask if I could feel the contraction I was having at that moment. No I did not. So my midwife, Ramona, comes in and asks how I'm feeling. I tell her that I want the baby out. She asked if I'm open to inducing with some kind of gel. I told her maybe. She explained the process and for some reason, I wasn't feeling ready for it so I told her I would like to wait another couple days before trying anything. She did check me and I was 2cm dilated and 70% effaced, which is good but I was at that point the week before. So we leave.

Brady takes me to Tempe Marketplace and we walk around for about an hour. Brady wanted the baby out almost as much as I did.

When we go home, I just chill on the couch and watch movies. I start feeling a little crampy during this time. Around 5:30, Brady goes out to do his home teaching. While he's gone the cramps start to actually hurt a little. I wasn't thinking much of it because a week before, after my midwife first checked me, I felt cramps the rest of the day. When Brady gets home I tell him how I'm feeling and he suggests that it could be contractions. I have no clue, I've never felt contractions before. I then decided to start timing them. They were coming about every 4 minutes and lasting about 35 seconds long. After about an hour of this. I decide to call Ramona. She said that it doesn't sound like active labor but it could be early labor. She suggests that I take a bath and relax and see if they go away. I do that and they did seem to slow down. Plus the bath got rid of the back pain I was feeling. I lay down in bed and put a movie on. I start timing the contractions again and they were still about 4 minutes apart but were now lasting about 45-50 seconds long, and they were getting increasingly intense. Brady calls Ramona around 11pm and she suggests that we walk around and to go to the hospital if they increase in length. I call my mom at this time to her that this baby was probably coming that night. We went to walk around our complex and I didn't last very long. I couldn't walk at all during the contractions. So we head inside and Brady finishes packing my bag while I lay on the bed and try to sleep for a few minutes.

So we go the hospital and I feel excited that it's finally happening and that we get to meet Oliver soon. When we get there, it takes me about 2 minutes to be able to get to the door. I was having pretty bad back labor. We do all the paper work and question answering and they take me to triage. I was now at 4cm. I labor in triage for I think is, an hour. They have me walk to my Labor & Delivery room. Oh the torture!

So now the hard part. My mom and Sarah arrive and come in after I get settled in. The contractions were seriously right on top of each other the entire time. The back labor was unbearable. Someone had to be rubbing my back the whole time. Luckily for Brady, he was able to switch off with my mom and Sarah, since rubbing my back was hard work for them. There were many times that I would cry and say "I can't do this". My wonderful family would just keep telling me that I could and that I was doing great.

Now, I didn't think I would be a moaner, but I moaned pretty much the whole time. It was the only way I could deal with the pain. (If you haven't caught on yet, I was doing this all naturally, no drugs.) After 2 or 3 hours the nurse checks me again, and glory be, I was at 9cm! She runs to call Ramona. Nobody was expecting me to have progressed so fast.

So it turns out, back labor comes when the baby is sunny-side up, as opposed to facing downward like they're supposed to when they come out. The nurse starts moving me into different positions to try to get the baby to turn, but nothing was working. When Ramona gets there, she checks me and I'm at 9.5cm. She said that we could go ahead and start some pushing. Finally.

After some pushing, they start moving me into different positions again. They had me in every labor and pushing position possible and I was dying, I hated having to move at all. Ramona tells me that the baby wasn't really liking the pushing so they threw an oxygen mask on me to help me breath better. Breathing got harder and harder to do, but the one comment that made me relax and focus on breathing was when they would tell me to breath for Oliver. I could do that. I couldn't breath for myself but I'd do it for Oliver's sake.

After an hour of pushing, Oliver finally pops out. Everyone exclaims how big he is. It's true. I've never actually seen a newborn just freshly born before, but he did look big. He was also adorable! I couldn't believe how good he looked. His hands and feet were a little blue, but I thought he looked perfect. They let me hold him for a few minutes before taking him to be weighed and measured and all that fun stuff. Brady and I just marveled. Brady bravely cut the cord. He was nervous about that part.

They took him to be weighed and measured and he really was a big boy.

Weight: 9lbs 9.5 ozs

Length: 22 1/4 inches long

Born February 1, 2011 at 6:43am.

I really loved the hospital staff that were there. My nurse Brooke was awesome, as well as the other nurses that helped out. Sarah said, that at one point, there were 9 medical personnel in the room. I got a lot of praise for delivering Oliver the way I did, not only naturally but vaginally, Ramona said that most most "Sunny-side up", or OP babies (I think), that are that size end up being C-section deliveries. None of us had any idea that he was to be that big, so I was superwoman.

Brady did amazing during the labor and delivery, I don't know what I would've done without him. He never left my side and was always very encouraging. He gave me a priesthood blessing just before we left the house for the hospital, and I know it gave me the boost I needed to be able to do what I did. I'm so lucky to have him as my partner.

So that's about it, that's how Oliver came into the world. Even though he was 8 days late, he's so gosh darn cute, I've forgiven him. We just figured that he wanted to be a February baby.

Thank you for everyone who came and visited us in the hospital, we appreciate the love and support of amazing family and friends.

Now for the pictures of my newest love:HUGE!

Family Photo!

Heated blankets... so good.

3 Days over due...

2011-01-27T06:29:00.000-08:00

I think the worst part about going over the due date, is my body feeling the exact same as it did the day before. Every morning I've been waking up just knowing that today is not the day. It's very very frustrating. I don't like not knowing when Oliver will arrive. I don't like the anticipation. I don't like not knowing when I should really be ready. And I am ready. I'm ready to meet our little boy, see what he looks like, and start the new chapter in our life. Why isn't this pregnancy thing an exact science yet?

I have no idea how my mom did 3 weeks over due with Sarah. I would've curled up in a ball and cried every day, like I did this morning.

I'm Grateful for

2011-01-24T07:58:00.000-08:00

Having a very healthy and easy pregnancy. I complain a lot. But I know how lucky I am.
A loving husband that would tend to my every want and need, if I let him.
Health insurance.
A job. Soooo very grateful.
My awesome sister, Sarah.
My mom. She's really smart.
A great visiting teacher. Not just because she brought me 3 big candy bars, but I love having someone to talk to besides Brady sometimes.
Good co-workers. It makes going to work easier when my body is wanting to be lying at home in bed.
Finding a name for my baby that even the cashier at Target loves.
A great hair dresser.
Supportive in-laws. I got really lucky.
The Gospel.
Prayer
Sleep. You know; when I get some.
Good movies.
People who care.
My anxious Dad.
This blog, that forces me to think of positive things.

So close, yet not close enough...

2011-01-17T08:54:00.000-08:00

That's how I feel these days. I have 1 week to go until Oliver can show up, yet I feel like it's still a little far. I'm so uncomfortable. I know this pregnancy has been super easy. I hear stories of pregnancy complications and totally feel for those women. I don't know how they endure it. Maybe I'm just a pansy, but this is all I've ever known and experienced. I'm tired of the constant achiness, but I should just get over it.

Can you feel PMSy during pregnancy? I think it's possible. About once a month, I have a crying day. Those actual days are fine, but man I feel down. I bawl for like 15 minutes during lunch or something, for no reason I can think of.

I should talk about Christmas. This year was with my mom and sister. My mom came to Mesa so I wouldn't have to travel. We celebrated the festivities at Sarah's house. We ate yummy Mexican food for Christmas eve dinner and played Trivial Pursuit, that Brady and I totally won. The next morning. Brady and I woke up drove to Sarah's to open presents.

My mom's "Present Christmas Tree". Silly woman.

A key thing we got: adorable baby quilt for Oliver.

My mom designed it herself and her and my grandma did all the embroidery. I got this picture from my mom's camera, it wasn't done when she took the picture, but you get the idea. I love it so much.

I gave Brady the "LOST Encyclopedia". He's reads in it everyday.

We also got a bread machine from my mom. We haven't used it yet, but Brady is very excited about it.

We saw a movie that day, "True Grit" which was very enjoyable. I thought the ending could have been better, but oh well, Jeff Bridges was awesome in it. My mom, who loves the original John Wayne version, thought it was ok.

On Sunday, after Christmas, Sarah and mom came to our ward for church. And Brady and I made dinner for them. Yes, I, Nicole, made the main dish for dinner, Mediterranean chicken. (People always doubt me) That was the end to Christmas.

We saw a couple more movie during the Christmas break. My favorite was "The King's Speech". It was my favorite of the year. Highly recommended.

I spent the week after Christmas getting baby ready. We prewashed clothes and diapers and cleaned the 2nd bedroom out of junk we never use. After a another week or two of cleaning, organizing and moving furniture around, we are ready! We even installed the car seat this weekend.

New Years Eve was fun. We didn't have any plans for a while, Brady just knew that fireworks were a must. Brian and Catherine asked if they could join us for New Years. Yes of course. We bought some fireworks and around 11pm Brian and Catherine showed up, with more fireworks! We drove out to Scottsdale to shoot them off since Brady's office is in a little more of a remote area with an open parking lot. It was freezing outside but it was fun to feel like kids. We shot off fireworks, and danced around with sparklers until after midnight. Then the quest of hot chocolate began, first at McDonalds, FAIL, then QT #1, FAIL, then QT #2, SUCCESS! We went back to our place and chatted with Catherine while Brian fell asleep. I think we didn't' get to bed until 2:30am. That's really late for us, but it was a fun night.

Story time! When we were waiting in the McDonalds drive-thru to not get hot chocolate, we witnessed a girl stumble out of a bar that was next to us. She staggered quite wiggly to her car. Nobody was with her. I'm surprised she didn't fall or throw up. She gets to her car and manages to unlock it. And then she drives away! We watched her drive around the parking lot, swerving everywhere. At first she makes a turn into a dead end. We laughed. Then she reverses back and zooms out of the parking lot. We were in shock. None of us had ever seen anything like that before. Happy New Year!

Here's the 38 week picture (taken at 38 weeks 2 days).

I'm now 39 weeks, 1 week to go!

Lots of stuff

2010-12-23T10:20:00.000-08:00

I've been a lame blogger. I know. Since I have to blog at home, I have a hard time, since my feet swell up at work while sitting at my desk and the last thing I want to do when I get home is sit at my computer and have my feet get bigger. We've done a lot of stuff I haven't talked about yet.

Before Thanksgiving, we went to The Good Guys Car Show. Brady wanted to get some video footage for his cinematography reel. I took my camera and took some pictures for myself. We had a blast being "artistic" together. A lot of these cars were pretty cool.

Brady filming.
Even I got to help out and film a little.

Not a real child. We didn't know what this was about, but it was funny.

It was fun, but it turns out, walking around for hours is not so good on my preggo body. I took a two hour nap immediately on the couch in Brady's office. My body was really sore when I woke up. Oh well.

Thanksgiving was fun. No pictures. We spent Thanksgiving day with the Gillmans. Brady and I were put in charge of providing the pie. We got kind of excited since I love having pies at Thanksgiving and Brady has always wanted to make pies. So we made 4 pies, a key lime (at the request of Brady's mom), a pecan pie, and 2 pumpkin pies. Everyone was pleased with them and they weren't nearly as hard to make as I thought they would. We all went to a movie that night and saw Harry Potter. Brady and I had already seen it, but were happy to see it again. I think Blake and Cindy were a little lost with the story. Fun times.

Grandma and Grandpa Bingham decided to join Sarah and mom at Sarah's house for Thanksgiving. It was nice to be able see them and spend some time with them around the holiday.

I'll have to wait until I get the pictures from my mom of my baby shower to blog about it. It was fun for me. :)

Brady has finished his degree! Woo Hoo! There's some mess up with his transcripts so he hasn't received his diploma yet. ASU is dumb like that. But he's done with his classes and is now on the major job hunt, which he basically has been for months now. *sigh* He feels really good about being done knowing that he has a BA degree that most employers are looking for. I'm so prond of him, he's worked so hard.

Last week, Brady and I had a major shopping day, we used the gift cards that we received and bought a lot of stuff we still needed. I feel a lot more prepared now since we have all the essential stuff. I just need to do a lot of pre-washing, which will get done next week when the detergent I ordered arrives. Yay!

As for the pregnancy itself, I've had a tough week, in my "easy pregnancy" standards. My mom said that I can't complain about though. So I won't. I'm 35 1/2 weeks along right now. Whew! Only 4 1/2 weeks to go. I can't believe we're a month away from meeting little Oliver. Brady and I are really excited, and get more excited everyday to become parents. It melts my heart to see Brady so happy. We wonder what he's going to look like. We're thinking he'll have dark hair and dark eyes. I'm also guessing that he'll be an 8 pound baby. I won't complain if he's smaller. ;)

Christmas Eve is tomorrow! Have a Merry Christmas!

Update on growing baby

2010-11-30T11:43:00.001-08:00

I thought I should add an update on the ever-kicking babe. First a picture.This was taken on the the 20th, when I was in my 30th week. But it's the most recent one I've got for now. I will also later blog about the car show this was picture was taken.

We have nailed down the name! And since I'm putting it on the blog, we better keep it. The name is Oliver J Gillman. Isn't it cute? I love it so much. Oliver is the only name we had found that stood out to me as a possiblity. The J comes from Brady, since it's his middle name. There is no period on the J. We're still getting used to calling him Oliver, we still end up just calling him "the baby".

This kid is kicking like crazy nowadays. And I love it. I can watch my tummy for hours as it moves in waves, it makes me laugh sometimes. I just can't believe that a little 3.5 pound baby can move so much all day long. But it is pretty entertaining.

We finally got registered for our stuff. It wasn't as fun as I thought it would be. As new parents, we had no idea what we would need. We took a list that my SIL sent us, and used it as a template, which was a huge help, but other than that, we were lost. My mom called me and listed like 10 more things we should register for, so, online I went, and added more stuff. I hope we have the important things covered.

I'm starting to get a little worried about my weight gain. I'm not going to put on here what I do weigh but I have already gained about 35 pounds. I really didn't want to gain 50 during this pregnancy since I heard that it's harder to loose, but it looks like that might happen to me. *sigh* I was taking the stairs at work throughout the whole pregnancy until last week. I just couldn't do it anymore without loosing my breath and taking one step every other minute. It wouldn't be so bad if I worked on the 2nd floor instead of the 3rd.

Comfort! It is gone. I can never really find a comfortable position to sit, lay down, or sleep in. My joints, hip wise, really ache when I stand up after sitting for over an hour or when I walk around too much. Usually at night, I can just be laying on the couch, watching TV, and I'll end up feeling out of breath, for no reason at all, that annoys me the most. I'll never take comfort for granted again.

The swollen ankles still come and go, but I think the cooler weather has helped keep the swelling down a little.

That's about it for now. I'm going to do another post soon about things that aren't baby related. I just need to get my pictures edited for it.

32 weeks! Only 8 to go!

I'm Lizzing!*

2010-11-09T11:04:00.000-08:00

Stuffed Animals with Singing Mouths from Brady Gillman on Vimeo.

*Lizzing: Laughing and Whizzing

The Third Trimester Begins

2010-10-31T22:02:00.000-07:00

Here we are in the "home stretch", as people tell me. I'm 28 weeks along, only 12 to go. I'm starting to get more uncomfortable and sitting for a long period of time is getting harder and harder, especially at work. I have to slouch in my seat a ton just so I don't feel all scrunched up but of course, that is starting to hurt my back. Other than that, I've been feeling great.

We have finally bought some gear. My mom took us out and got us to buy a stroller and car seat,
and a Pack N Play.
We're quite proud of our purchases, and if we get nothing else, we at least have a way to move the baby around and a place for him to sleep.

I took my glucose test on Wednesday of last week. All I heard before taking this test is how awful it is. People talked up the horror of it so much I was expecting the worst. Turns out that it was nothing! I show up and they give me this small bottle of some orange drink that I had to get down in 5 minutes. I got it down in like 90 seconds because it tasted exactly like this stuff!
The annoying part was having to just sit there for an hour before they could do my blood draw. At least Brady came along to keep me company. No results on the test yet, by the way.

Here's the belly shot, taken Wednesday,

On to fun things we've done. Well, we went to a fun movie event with our friends Brian and Kat. They invited us to go see this:It was laugh out load hilarious. If you don't know what it is, Riff Trax are these three guys that starred in Mystery Science Theater 3000, and they now "riff" on more modern movies, but for Halloween they did this Vincent Price movie "House on Haunted Hill" and was broadcast throughout theaters. They also riffed on a couple of old, rather random, short films, from the 70's. Awesomeness.

Story: After arriving at the theater after we had dinner, we all used the bathroom. While in the bathroom, Brian saw a man wearing a fanny pack, he walked out and punched Brady, "slug-bug" style and they decided to begin the game that you can punch someone if you see a fanny pack. Kat and I walked out of the bathroom and we were told about this and Kat pointed at a guy in the distance asking "like that guy?" We all cracked up, since this was a completely different guy than who Brian originally saw. What are the odds? Let the games begin.

We've also seen a few good movies. In the theater! In the past month we've seen,
The TownThe Social NetworkWaiting for SupermanWe both cried at this last one. It was sad and frustrating. However it was really good and I recommend seeing it. I think Brady and I talked about education, schools, and our own school experiences for two hours after walking out of the theater.

For the first time...

2010-10-07T07:24:00.000-07:00

Brady felt our boy kicking! Last night, while we were laying on our bed playing with our phones, the baby started bouncing around. I told Brady and he put his hand on my tummy and finally felt 3 good kicks. We were excited. Happy times!

24 Weeks

2010-10-05T13:53:00.000-07:00

Hello! I'm still here. I'm 24 weeks pregnant and feeling good about it, 85% of the time. The 15% is when I have moments of mood changes. It's like when I was on the pill and I felt PMS-y all the time. It was no fun then and lasted a lot longer, but this time I have worries with it, like, this baby is coming sooner than later and we have nothing prepared. I like feeling prepared. Or when people treat me different in a way that makes me think, "geez people, I'm not handicapped!"

My favorite part about being pregnant so far, a tie between:

Feeling him kick me. It make me giggle sometimes and he has literally tickled me a couple times. I love seeing my tummy bounce. It just makes me think about how cute he's going to be.
I also love sending my dad updates through the email. His replies back to me make me laugh and I love being able to share this experience with him.

Here I am at 24 weeks! No I'm not pushing it out.

Brady has had my camera, and my point and shoot is kaput, so I had to use my phone.

Another annoying thing is swollen feet and ankles. Extreme man! It started when we went to Disneyland, then they went away after a week or so, then they came back with a vengeance, then they went away. Now they puff up a little every day, but go down by morning. On Saturday, Sarah came shopping with Brady and me. When I came out of a dressing room in a dress, Sarah was literally gawking at my ankles. I would've been offended if it wasn't so funny.

Some randomness:

I don't talk to my tummy/baby. Is that bad? Will my baby not recognize my voice?

My driving has gotten less ragerific, not that it was that bad before. I now notice that people run red lights all the time! It's scary, so I make sure all cars are coming to a stop before I go on my green light.

I like listening to rock and alternative music in the car. Is that bad with a baby?

I can't wait until my new clothes come in. I ordered a bunch online yesterday.

Brady and I watched the documentary "Babies". It was super cute and really funny. Our favorite baby was definitely the Mongolian baby. He was hilarious, even his older brother had us rolling.

I can't wait to see my mom this Friday.

Restaurant Week

2010-09-22T12:46:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd talk about our fun experience last weekend. Right now here in Arizona is "Restaurant Week"

What is Arizona Restaurant Week?

"2010 Arizona Restaurant Week will give local, regional and national food lovers the opportunity to enjoy a prix-fixe dinner for $19, $29 or $39 per person (unless noted: excluding beverages, tax and gratuity) at a number of participating high-end Arizona restaurants. Arizona Restaurant Week’s goal is to position Arizona as one of the top culinary destinations in the nation by increasing awareness of the many dining opportunities available in the state, as well as stimulating business and revenue for restaurants throughout Arizona." - ARW website.

We were invited to go with our friends Brian and Catherine. We had gone with them last year to a restaurant called "Bloom", and it was such a fun/delicious experience, we had to go again.

Here is a picture that we have from last year. Buick was at this location taking "red carpet pictures" to promote their new car. Cheesy but fun.

So this year, Brian and Cat chose to try "The Mission" in Old Town Scottsdale. It's labeled as "modern latin cusine", but lets just call it amazing!

We walk in and can't really see anything. It was really dark. Jokes flew around about it being a swanky vampire bar. Then the waiters opened the shutters that were right in front of Brady and I and we were blind for a little bit, but it quickly got dark outside. Leaving to look at our food by holding up the single tiny useless candle to it, so we can see what we were eating.

We started out getting chips and salsa, which we later found out, on the bill, was not complimentary, as all latin restaurants are. Usually. Right? But that would be the only strike of the evening.

The appetizers were amazing. Brady and I both got this:"Almejas al Vapor", Peruvian clam stew + rock shrimp + chorizo + aji amarillo + roast corn + pan de yucca. It was so yummy. I could have had a huge helping of just that and left happy. I belive Brian and Cat both got "Duck Carnitas Gordita", roast garlic aioli + ancho plum gastrique. I thought Brian was going to die, he loved it so much.

For our main meal Brady and I both got "Chorizo porchetta", pork shoulder + house made chorizo + rosemary + cotija + white bean puree + sweet garlic crema. It was really good, the sauce was amazing and the pork was cooked just right. Brian got "Pecan grilled New york" smoked tomato + chiletepin + manchego + grits, which he also seemed to really like. And Cat got the "Black Grouper" white bean succotash + crayfish + aji rocoto.

For dessert, us girls got this:Pumpkin Bread + creme + butterscotch + pepitas + vanilla bean ice cream, which was amazing! I would totally get it again. Even the guys loved it.

Brady and Brian both got this:Espresso Churros + Ibarra chocolate ice cream shake, which was also delicious.

I would recommend this place to anyone and would love to go back some day. I also loved the fact that this restaurant was supposed to be a $39 per person place, but got advertised as $29 per person. Ha. You could see the disappointment on the waiters face, especially since we didn't order any drinks, not even soda.

Another successful year of Restaurant Week.

Random thoughts, fact, and figures

2010-09-15T13:04:00.000-07:00

I bought maternity clothes. I went to Motherhood Maternity since they seem to have the best prices. On Saturday I went and bought 2 dresses and a pair of jeans. Love the jeans. When I tried the dresses on at the store, I thought they looked great. The next day I planned to wear one to church, but I put one on and saw not a pregnant me, but a fat me. I had a little break down. Brady consoled me and I wore a skirt that fit ok, but I'm sure I won't be wearing it again for a while. I'll have to try the dresses again next week.

Yesterday, I got tired of not being able to button any of my work pants, so back to MM I went and bought a couple pair and a few shirts as well. I'm wearing the pants, but they're still a little loose.

I talked to a girl on Sunday during Relief Society, we've never really talked before and she seems about my age, if not younger. She asked if I had kids, and I told her, one on the way. She asked how far along I was and I said, 21 weeks. Her eyes got really big and said, you don't look pregnant at all. After my break down over my body that morning, I didn't know whether to take that as a compliment or if it added insult to injury. So I just said, "yeah? I guess so."

I've gained 15 pounds in this pregnancy so far. I feel every ounce of it when I climb the stairs at work to the 3rd floor. I just hate using the elevator.

This movie made me cry.

But so did this show

I'll blame the hormones.

I have a co-worker on my team who is also pregnant. Our due dates are only one day apart. Which is pretty cool. We're both having boys. We swap stories and experiences we're having.

Brady and I are going to do cloth diapering. It may sound crazy, but I'm doing it more for economical reasons. We're buying them slowly until we have as many as we feel is necessary. I was always leery of the idea until I listened to a podcast talking about. They sold me on the idea, and Brady was on board with no problems with it. We're going to use the Bum Genius One Size 4.0. They have the best reviews.

I have no idea, what else to do to prepare for this baby. When should I buy stuff? After the baby shower? I don't even know what is essential things to register for. What brands are best? I don't want to go over board on a bunch of stuff that I'll never use.

I'm trying to decide on whether to take birthing classes. It costs money, which is precious to us these days, but maybe I'll learn a lot more than what I'm reading in my book.

I hate blogging on a PC.

Dishin' It

2010-09-10T08:51:00.000-07:00

It's a Boy!

We're very excited! It's crazy too! I'm going to have a son! I'm going to be a mom and have a little boy that will be my son. I can hardly believe it.

We weren't all that surprised that it was a boy since we were given a very strong hint at our 12 week ultrasound. When we were there, the technician said "I know it's early, but do want to know what I think your having?" We said yes. She said "a boy". It did seem pretty obvious in the ultrasound pics. And even the doctor that day agreed with her. But since she said that's still too early to be 100% sure, we shouldn't go buy all blue yet. So we only told some people and decided to wait until this ultrasound to announce what it really was.

We'll announce the name if we ever nail it down as official, since we have one in mind.

Brady asked me what color theme we're going to do for the "baby room". Look, I'm not a decorator. Never have been. You can look around my house and see that I'm not one to do color themes. Or a theme in any way. I do like color. I'm not into the whole neutral color thing that everyone seems to do nowadays. It looks nice, but I like seeing reds (obviously), blue, purples, whatever, at the same time, and I'm sure my children's rooms will be the same way, until they're old enough to take over decorating their own rooms themselves. I do have a cute idea that involves colored paper and cute shapes over the babies crib. I can't wait to know where I'll be living and what room to do this in.

Oh here's the gift my mom bought for my future boy.

Isn't it adorable? I'm loving the Classic Pooh stuff. If I do a theme, that's what it would be.

Cute little rattle

I think it's time for some maternity clothes. I have one skirt and one dress that fit ok, but since I have 20 Sunday's left (weird), I think I need to go out and buy a couple that I can grow into. I was looking online and I couldn't believe how expensive maternity clothes are! Come on! I'm only going to wear this stuff for 6 months or so, I hope.

Man, am I just rambling, or what?

A last minute trip

2010-09-06T14:49:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, Brady and I decided to go to Disneyland for a few days. It was a last minute decision, and for me, last minute means, one week notice. We also didn't tell anyone. We liked being sneaky and knew we would get an earful from certain family members that would be TOTALLY JEALOUS! And I was right. MWAH ha ha ha.

Why would I go to Disneyland while pregnant? Because Disneyland is fun, even when you aren't riding one of the roller coasters. I decided to take my SLR camera to take awesome pictures. But since I'm not a dedicated photographer, I didn't get very artsy, and only carried it around the first day. That thing is heavy.

We left on Thursday after I go off of work.We drove into this pretty setting and ended up getting pounded on with rain and strong wind, and next to semi trucks. Luckily I was driving, so we were guaranteed to be safe.

We got to Anaheim a little cranky. It was late and we were tired. We camped again. Hey, it's fun and a huge money saver. We got set up and went to sleep and rose to a beautiful day for Disneyland!

The wildest ride I could ride was "Pirates of the Caribbean". We went on that after first riding "Jungle Cruise" nothing like horrible puns to start your day. We even did "Tarzan's Treehouse", we had along day to fill without the help of thrill rides. View from Tarzan's Treehouse.

We made reservations to eat at "The Blue Bayou". They amazingly had a table available for the very beginning of lunch, right next to the water. Sweet!
Yummy food to come!

The fun thing about sitting next to the water at this place, is that you have people going by on the boats waving at you. Brady had fun humoring them and waving back.

Next was a ride on the "Mark Twain Riverboat", something I hadn't done in many years.
A view of the canoe ride from Mark Twain. And yes, we did this too!
Fantasyland was a must for us, so we rode on "Peter Pan", my favorite, "Mr. Toad's Wild Ride", and the carousel. We even did the castle walk through, which was also recently updated and really cool. Seriously!

As it started to get hotter in the late afternoon, we did a couple things on Main Street like watch all of the penny arcade movies, and go into the movie theater. We went and saw "Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln", which was pretty good since they had recently updated it.

I can tell Brady kind of wanted to go on a ride and since "Splash Mountain" had a Single Rider line, I encouraged him to go. But just as we were getting there, Brady pulled me onto the "Davy Crockett Canoes". We ended up sitting right up front. We were excited and really wanted to paddle since we see most people just sit there while the cast members do all of the work, and we feel bad. So we got a workout. It was fun.

We went on the Winnie the Pooh ride for the first time. It's full of randomness and I'm not surprised that it's not more popular (HAPPY BIRTHDAY! HAPPY BIRTHDAY! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!, inside joke). There was a couple in front of us on the ride that turned around at one point and asked if they could take a picture over our heads. We said yeah. They said it was because there were left over head mounts from the Country Bear Jamboree hidden in the Pooh ride. He pointed it out and we turned and looked and sure enough!
It was these:

We went Tomorrowland for one reason, to see...It was sooo cheesy awesome! I could have done without the new chair moving thing. But it was hilarious to see, especially with Brady. This is not his kind of thing. Unfortunately, the 3D quality isn't that great and so we couldn't bear to see it again on this trip.

Brady: "It's a CUBE!"

We watched the fireworks show that night, which was kind of a snooze, the music was too soft and there weren't enough fun firework explosions going on.

The 2nd day we did California Adventure. I didn't have my camera most of the day so not many pictures to show. We thought that they were opening at 9am so we get there at that time and the gates are still closed. Turns out that they weren't opening until 10am. But we waited in the line that was already there and at 9:30 they opened the gate to allow people to go get their "World of Color" fast pass ticket. Something you have to have, to see the new night show. So we headed to where they tell us and it's a long line. Good thing we go there so early. We only had to wait for about 25 minutes, but the line got A LOT longer the next time we saw it an hour later. But they do the show three times, so it's still worth the wait.

The first thing we rode was the Merry-Go-Round, with the swinging seats. It was early enough that we were able to get our own. It was fun and man do those things swing!

We rode "Soarin over California" which is always awesome. We even got fast passes for later when it would be more crowded. We saw "Muppets in 3D" and cute little stage show we stumbled on called "Drawn to the Magic". Since it was near by we even went on the "Monsters Inc" ride for the first time. It was lame.

For lunch we got delicious bread bowls. Then we headed over to Paradise Pier to see how Toy Story Mania was. The wait was 45 minutes (Ugh! They need fast passes!) We decided to not go in at that moment. Brady went into the bathroom and I called my mom. By the time I got off the phone with mom. The wait had gone down to 30 minutes! Sweet! It moved fast. I love that ride, and games are so much fun.

It was now 3pm and we were tired, so we went to our car, laid the seats back and slept until 5pm. It was the best thing ever!

We got back in the park and ate a simple dinner at the Fresh Market. We watched people get wet on the Big Bear River Run. Hilarious. And I took some pictures.
Hey that's nice picture, but...

Oh Yeah! Camera skills!

We headed to our line for "World of Color" and we were in great spot. We were almost dead center and not too close to the water, but not too far away. Showing up early for the tickets paid off.

Waiting for "World of Color"

World of Color pre-show. I know, you can totally tell what's going on.

I didn't get any pictures of the show. I wanted to really enjoy it without worrying about getting a good picture. Plus the mist of the water would hit us. This show was amazing. I was really impressed. It doesn't have a story like "Fantasmic" but the spectacle is awesome. It's crazy how high that water goes up and the effects they were able to pull off. And pyrotechnics like Disney's never done before! This show is highly recommended. See it the next time you're there.

I didn't take this picture, but I tried to after the show.

California had this thing going on at night called "Glow fest". We were wondering what it was, and it turns out that it's a big dance they have every night. It's a like a night club in the entrance to DCA.
The next day we went back to Disneyland to do a the few fun rides I could do, Pirates and Haunted Mansion. Brady went on 'Indiana Jones" by himself as well as "Splash Mountain". It was fun to be able to see him go down the drop. He was sitting in the back with a bunch of young college kids and I could hear him yell in joy as they went down. He got pretty wet on one side.

Brady decided that he wanted to go on the River Run at DCA right before we left, so we walked all the way over, but the wait was 35 minutes. And he didn't want to wait that long. So we ate a churro and left.

It was a fun trip, even pregnant. It makes me excited for when ever we go next time and I can go on what ever ride I want. But it also makes me really appreciate Disney for not making just thrill rides. It was also a good trip for just Brady and me, before we become responsible parents.

Miles Driven: 700
Churros Eaten: 6
Bathrooms Uses: Lots!
Lincolns' Seen: 1
Swollen Feet: 2 (3 times)
Fun?: Yes.

Goodbye California

Last weekend...

2010-08-26T14:11:00.000-07:00

I'm amazingly almost done with work for today, so I thought I'd take a break and tell about my weekend with Madre (as Sarah would say).

To burn off some extra vacation hours I have, I took Friday off to spend the day with mom, just her and me. Her school is doing a 4 day school week this year so she has every Friday off (jealous). We started out getting pedicures, which is always a nice treat. My toes weren't looking pretty this summer. Afterwards we met up with Sarah for lunch at Olive Garden for soup, salad, and bread sticks. It was pretty good. I didn't tell my mom (until now, I guess) that I had Olive Garden two days before than because of a work team lunch. But no worries, I really like their salad, and that one breadstick really was the best breadstick I've ever had at that restaurant. MMMM.

Sarah went back to work and mom and I went to Babies R Us. I've only been to this place twice in my life and, it's been a while. We walked down every isle while my mom told me things like, "you don't need this", "I had something like this for you", and "I don't know how you survived!" (safety requirements were pretty lax when I was a baby). We got giddy with excitement many times. The word "cute" came out of my mouth way too much. After about an hour and a half, maybe two hours, my mom bought the "first gift". It's the most adorable outfit that I'll show in a later post. I can hardly wait for my 6 month old baby to wear it.

We went to Kohls so mom could buy some clothes and we looked at maternity stuff. Ugh, I'm not wanting to wear maternity clothes. I know there are some cute stuff out there, but the idea that I have to buy these expensive clothes to wear for less than a year is frustrating to me. I can't bring myself to committ. My mom bought me a simple shirt that was on sale, so I have something, but baby has got some growing to do before wearing it.

Amazingly that took our whole day. We lounged around at Sarah's house for a couple hours, just chatting before I went home to hang with Brady.

On Saturday, I went to see "Eat, Pray, Love" with the fam, and Brady, surprisingly, volunteered to come along. He felt bad for subjecting me to a movie the night before called "Brotherhood of the Wolf", boring, slow, dumb, too long. I don't know if I was comparing E,P,L to BotW, but I actually thought it was good. But it was also a little slow and a little too long.

Anyways, that's it, that's what we've been up to. The End.

I'm a walking cliche

2010-08-19T13:49:00.000-07:00

I can't believe I actually had this craving.

17 Week Picture

2010-08-17T16:32:00.000-07:00

Here I am at 17 weeks. Actually the picture was taken on Sunday, the day before I was 17 weeks, but I still look the same.
I don't know. I don't think I'm "showing". I think I just look thicker.

Look at me, Look at me

2010-08-11T15:33:00.000-07:00

Just kidding, I have no pictures. It's been a while so here's a quick run down of what we've been doing.

HOUSE FOR SALE!

We have put our condo up for sale. We're very excited and anxious to get it sold and be able to be free to move where we want.

JOBS!

Brady is currently looking for a new job. He has a contract with CBS Radio to make videos for them when they ask, but he's still waiting for them to ask to make one. Keep him in your prayers on his search.

FAMILY!

My sister-in-law came into town for a couple of weeks for a visit, along with nephews Rafe and Skye. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures while they were here. I'm terrible. But I had fun visiting. I ditched work one day to hang out with Shannon. We went and saw "Salt" in theaters, which was kind of disappointing of a movie, but I still had fun. I loved hanging out with my nephews, they are the cutest kids ever. I love talking to Rafe, he has a funny imagination.

HOBBIES!

Brady and I started working on our hobbies again. I'll have to post pictures of the finished products. Bradys is pretty impressive.

BABY!

Yeah, this is all people want to talk about with me. I'm 16 weeks now! Time flies. I still don't think I look pregnant. I'll take a picture soon. I look like I've just gained 15 pounds. :(

I've switched doctors, and I'm very happy about it. I wasn't quite comfortable with my first one.

I'm feeling pretty great. Normal actually. The only thing that reminds me that I'm preggo is not being able to button some of my pants.

I got a bella band to extend my wardrobes life. I can't justify buying maternity clothes while not showing at all.

---------

I'll try to update more often. With pictures. I've been so bad lately since I get home and never get on my home computer. (I'm at work right now) But I do want to blog about our busy life and our crazy baby plans. Not too crazy. (Mom!)

Picture Day!

2010-07-15T21:36:00.001-07:00

Last month, I hired a photographer to take family pictures for Brady and me. It was a lot a fun. And HOT! (Temperature wise). But they turned out great. Just how I was hoping. Here is our photographer's website.
And here are a few of my favorites. We have a lot more than this but I can't give them all away.Check out how blue they made Brady's eyes. Kind of sexy...

This one's just funny to us since we know what's going on.

2 years down! And "other news"

2010-07-12T15:00:00.000-07:00

It's been a crazy couple of weeks and no pictures were taken.

Yesterday Brady and I celebrated our 2 year anniversary. Since it was on a Sunday, and we did an "away" trip to Prescott, we celebrated pretty low key. I was feeling icky most of the day and only attended sacrament meeting at church. After Brady taught Sunday School, he came home with roses in hand; and jerky (he knows the way to my heart). Brady then took me out to dinner to Claim Jumpers in Scottsdale. It was yummy and we got dessert to go. That's pretty much it. But we talked a lot about our upcoming year in marriage, looking for a new place to live, looking for a new job for Brady, and

A baby!

Yay! I think most people know by now since news travels like wild fire in the family. Brady and I are expecting our first at the end of January. We're both pretty darn excited.

It was fun telling people, so I need to tell the story of telling my mom. Now, my mom has talked about having grandkids since I was 10. She may deny it, but it's no joke. Luckily, my mom's birthday fell on the weekend that I wanted to start telling the news. So the day before her birthday, she came into town, as well as Grandma and Grandpa Bingham. My mom called me and told me where we're all going to dinner, The Golden Gate Chinese restaurant my mom calls, "The Red Door Place", and I had an hour to build my own anxiety.

Brady and I had bought a "Congratulations" card that had some appropriate wording that would convey the message we're giving her. And to make it more obvious we put a copy of our ultrasound picture in the card.

On the way to the restaurant, I start to bawl. I was super duper anxious, and happy, and excited and it all came out in tears 2 minutes before we saw everyone. Brady calmed me down and we walked in and everyone was already sitting. We sit down and I let everyone order before I ask mom if she wants her birthday present early. She was confused because, well, her birthday was the next day, but I honestly couldn't hold it in any longer! I told her "You might really like it." She opened the card and immediately said "REALLY?" and Sarah saw it and yelled "Are you SERIOUS?" Us girls start crying. I give my mom a hug and grandma and grandpa and are all "what is it?" Everyone was really excited and I was able to breath.

I called my dad the next day. I told him that he's going to be a grandpa, and he just laughed saying "that's old guy stuff", but he's was excited.

We saw all the Bourgeous' for Holly's blessing and I was able to announce to them in person. It was funny since Kim, Paige, and Lindsay were all thinking that I would come that day and make that announcement. Funny girls.

It's been such a relief to be able to tell people and talk about things. It was starting to feel a bit lonely only having Brady to talk to about how I feel, and although he's a saint and is really understanding, he doesn't quite know how it feels. I sure do love him though.

Prescott saved my sanity

2010-06-29T12:36:00.000-07:00

Last week was a bad week. Work was no good. Not because of my actual work that I do, just... never mind, whatever, bleh. Brady would come home and ask how my day was and I would just cry a little. My solace was the couch. Mon-Thurs night was spent in front of the TV, but not happily. Friday morning, I asked Brady to think of something, anything, fun for us to do that night. He emailed me in the afternoon with the idea to leave town. HECK YES! He reserved a hotel in Prescott and we were on our way out of town by 4:30pm.

This was the perfect idea. Brady would say that I was "hyper" on the way up there. I probably was. I was ridiculously excited to go to Prescott. I've never actually vacationed there and have no recollection of even driving through, and had no idea what we were going to do all weekend. But cooler weather and just getting away was so perfect.

We played a game called "Rubberneckers" on the way up. Brady had borrowed it from his parents house the week before. You basically draw cards and you have to find what it says on the card, like a weather vane, a car with 3 or more bumper stickers, or a pay phone, and you get points for finding the stuff. We had a fun time just talking and playing on the way up.

We roll into town around 7 and checked into the hotel and we were starving and wanted to find some food. We discovered that we were walking distance from center of town and walked to "El Charro", because Mexican food always sounds good. And it was.

Before going into the restaurant, we saw a concert going on at the courthouse grounds. It looked like the whole town was there. But by the time we got out, it was over and the stage was being packed up. We walked around the courthouse, which would end up being the center of the happenings for the our weekend.

Brady reading the history of Prescott.

The weather was awesome!

On Saturday morning after breakfast at the hotel (which was surprisingly super crowded), we walked back out to the courthouse.

A cool church that was converted to a theatre in the 60's.

Blue flowers! Just like the ones in my wedding bouquet. Only real.

We had seen online that there was a bluegrass music festival going on, and boy, was there. We get to the grounds and although it didn't start for another hour, people were already sitting in their camping chairs waiting for it to start. Lets just say now that the crowd was 90% old people. I mean above the age of 70. It was funny. We sit on the grass and just relax and take pictures.

We are obviously not used to this relaxing lifestyle. After what we thought was 3o+ minutes of chilling, Brady looked at the time and saw that barely 15 minuted had gone by. Whoa. This was going to be a long day. We walked around some more checking out the many sculpture statues. Prescott has them everywhere.

Cool statue that was unveiled in 1907! It's in honor of Roosevelt's Rough Riders and was sculpted by the same guy who did Mount Rushmore.

We ended up on the other side of the courthouse where some bluegrass groups were practicing. We settled on a bench and listened to them and talked, it was fun.

About 15 minutes before the festival started, we walked back to see that that crowd had tripled in size. It was now about 78% old people.

This crowd will end up filling all the grassy area,
including the other side of the stage.

We found a little shady spot, but by the time that real show started, we wanted to go check out the shops that were now opening. Prescott has some cool little places to shop, and it's not all western themed and antiques.

We did pass by about million antique stores, though we only went into one, yay us.

After a lot of walking around. We headed back to hotel to rest and so we can plan on a lunch and afternoon activities.

We ate some Subway and drove around Prescott. We went walking around the mall and I even bought a shirt.

Brady would start driving down a road until we were up in the mountains and then turn around and do it again on another road. We ended up trying to turn around only to be wedged between two cars and not finding a good spot to pull over for about 5 minutes, which felt like 20 minutes. It made for a good laugh.
Wedged!That night we went to dinner specifically to eat "cowboy food". We ate ribs at this famous saloon & restaurant called "The Palace".

And after dinner, Brady had a big craving for pie. We looked up some good pie shops in Prescott but the good ones were closed already, so we walked next door to Albertson's and bought a coconut pie. We ate it in the hotel room and watched a movie until we fell asleep.

Sunday we left at 9:30am to be home in time for church. It was a fantastic weekend. It was great to be able to leave my worries behind (honestly, I don't really have that many). I loved being able to talk to Brady with no distractions and laugh and relax.

I had a birthday

2010-06-17T15:38:00.000-07:00

It's true! It was a while ago. On Mother's Day, actually. I turned 27. I'm officially in my late-twenties. I had a good time sharing the day with my mom. Since we were in Safford, Grandma and Grandpa Bingham made me breakfast. I choose french toast, and it was yummy. Brady gave me a card telling me that he was going to get me a spa day. I was excited, but weekend after weekend was busy. So at the beginning of June, I asked Brady if he could buy me a new purse instead. Although I loved my old purse so much, the shoulder strap was getting a little frayed, and I needed a change.

Old purse: OGIO

New purse: Giani Bernini

So there you have it. A post about purses. I never thought I'd do that.