Let The Countdown Begin!

This was a few months ago.  But really, he is so cute.  I just want to squeeze him.

The weather the past few days has been amazing!  Tate and I have been able to go outside and play and run.  It is so nice being able to have a break from the apartment.  We also bought a rec center pass and so Tate and I have been going to the playground and the pool.  They have a shallow area for kids to play in.  Tate is so funny.  He crawls in the water and then will just put his face in it.  I have to be ready to pull his face out of the water.  And he wants to crawl into the deeper part and so I have to turn him in the opposite direction.

Josh and I watched Monster's University last night.  It has been so long since we watched a movie.  I thought it was so funny!  Usually during funny movies I don't really laugh all that much, I just smile.  But I was laughing almost the whole movie.  And Josh and I had to re-watch some parts after it was over.

I decided last week I need to be more grateful.  I think it's easy to just take blessings for granted and view them as just normal things.  And it's can be really easy to see the things that aren't very good about life.  So I am going to write something I am grateful for everyday.  And today I am grateful that Josh helps me fulfill my goals and he knows me well enough to help me in ways that work for me.  And I am grateful that we have the green tercel so I can have a car while Josh is at work.

Josh and I were trying to decide if we should find a different apartment to live in for the rest of the time we are in Provo.  We were just thinking it would be easier for Tate to have his own space to sleep in and keep his stuff in.  The idea of Tate having his own room is so nice.  Right now we just put Tate to sleep in our bedroom and then when we go to sleep we move him into a little hallway we have.  It works great, but in the morning it is kind of tricky.  We want to get out of our room, so we have to move Tate back into our room.  But sometimes Tate is kind of awake and when he sees us he starts crying and we feel bad having him in our room crying because our neighbors can hear him.  Today it worked wonderfully.  Tate was still sleeping and we moved him and he stayed asleep.  So that was awesome!  If it was that smooth everyday I would be totally happy with that.  It's the days where he's awake and we can't leave our bedroom that I want to move.  But I love this apartment.  And it makes me sad thinking we will eventually have to move.  And I love that we are right below our good friends and above Nathan and Sarah.  And we are right next to Smiths.  And we have so many happy memories in this apartment.  And the ward is so awesome.  And the rent is so so so good.  So, we are staying!  And that makes me happy.  And maybe we will make our front room a room for Tate, but I really don't want to do that.

I am reading a book called "The Goose Girl."  I was trying to tell Josh the title and I almost called it "The Google Girl."  I really like it.  I have this comfort zone that I like to stay in with books.  I get nervous branching out and trying new books because I'm afraid I won't like them and so I just reread the books I know and love.  I didn't like "The Goose Girl" at the beginning because it is different than other books I've read, but now I really like it.  And I just finished a book that I've read before and I love it.  But it has a really sad ending and while Tate was taking a nap I finished it and I was bawling.  Not just crying.  Bawling.  It was a little embarrassing.

Tate is growing up so much.  He actually has a personality!  haha.  He is so funny.  He will do things on purpose to make me laugh.  He can stand for a long time and he loves walking around the house-holding on to our fingers of course.  I just can't get over how great he is!

We are going to Georgia for my sister's wedding in December.  And I am so excited!  The countdown to our trip has begun.  34 days.  I think it's going to be a good trip.  We Facetime with my parents and I really think Tate recognizes them.  So I'm excited to see them interact in person.  It's going to be crazy with the wedding and everything, but luckily we will be there a day and a half afterwards so we can spend some quality time together.  Ah I'm so excited!  Thank you to Whitney for getting married!!

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I Did It!

Josh and me when we were dating.  I had dyed my hair brown and Josh had long hair.  Good times.

I did it!  I have been telling myself for a long, long time that I would organize this storage room we have and today I finally did it.  I think it looks better, and at least now I can walk in it without being in danger of a box falling on me.  Whenever I would go in there (when it was really messy) I would just get so annoyed and so mad that I had let it get so bad.  So now I can go in it without being upset.

This morning Tate was standing like a champ.  He would push himself up from something and stand for a long time and clap for himself.  He forgot how to clap for a week or two, but then Josh reminded him how to do it and now he does it all the time.  Whenever I say "yay" he starts clapping, because that's usually what I say when I clap.

Josh and I, well it was really only Josh, made the best fish tacos ever.  They were so good I recorded Josh explaining how he made them, so we could make them again.

On Saturday, Josh and I went on a little date and played soccer at the RB.  There are usually people playing there almost all day on Saturdays.  It was so fun!  The only hard part was we were some of the only people who spoke english and we were trying to split up the teams because at one point we had 24 (12v12) people on a field meant for 14 (7v7).  It never worked out and sometimes someone would start talking to Josh in spanish and he just kind of nodded and said something vague, like "ya he should've shot it."

Here are videos of Tate from yesterday.  I was laughing so hard, so that's why the camera is shaking.

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Halloween!

First, Happy Halloween (yesterday)!  It was a great first Halloween for Tate.  We were able to do some fun things, which were mostly fun for me.  Stacy and I went and ran some sprints in the IPF and while we were there the women's team was practicing on the practice field.  So we stopped by and said hi to everyone.  Everyone loved seeing Tate and it was totally what I needed.  I needed to see all my friends and laugh and talk!  I felt so full afterward!  When we got home I put Tate down for a nap - he didn't go to sleep.  And then I looked for his Halloween costume.  It is a Finding Nemo costume I bought and wore when I was a sophomore at BYU.  It is supposed to be for a 2-year-old.  But it works.  I looked and looked and couldn't find it.  Stacy, Tate, and I went to Rocco's Tacos to get a free taco, but when we got there I didn't have my phone to show them the coupon app that would allow me to get a free taco.  And I didn't have my keys, so I went back to the car to get my keys (luckily a door was unlocked) and couldn't find my phone there.  So we went home, but we were so close to getting a taco.  Then I decided to look for the costume one more time and I found it!  So Tate and I went to the BYU football stadium to meet Josh and go the farmer's market they have in the parking lot.  I put Tate in his costume and we were off.  It was a fun farmer's market.  It's pretty small, but we got free samples, and that's all it takes to make us happy.  Then we went to the Jackson's house and saw Rachel and Kenzie's costumes.  And I got this picture I've been wanting to get.  One of their neighbors has some ghosts on their front lawn, and I've wanted to get a picture of Tate with the ghosts.  Here are some pics.

I had a few great experiences this week.  So during Stake Conference, the Stake Presidency talked a lot about the "Hastening the Work of Salvation" broadcast and how we can be better missionaries.  Well, I feel like the General Authorities have really been emphasizing sharing the gospel and how missionary work is a group effort.  So I decided I would be a part of this and not be idle in regards to missionary work.  I felt like I should facebook message one of my old friends from high school and see how she is doing and if she is going to Church.  So I did.  And she messaged me back and told me she was just thinking she should start going back.  Then I told her it was meant to be that I messaged her during the time she was feeling prompted to go back to Church.  It is such a small thing, but for me it was a way to show Heavenly Father that if He will give me the prompting I will do my best to follow through.  And I think He was telling my friend that He loves her and wants her to come back.

As part of this missionary effort I am also trying to serve more and really follow Elder Ballard's counsel to pray every day for a chance to help someone (that was from a few conferences ago).  One day I felt like I should go visit my friend and I did and we ended up talking for a long time and she's been sick and has had so many big events happen and at the end she said she had needed to just talk to a friend...and I needed that too!  And Wednesday Josh ran into a friend on campus.  This friend got in an accident a few years ago and suffered a traumatic brain injury and so he has some challenges.  Well, when Josh saw him he told Josh it was his birthday and no one had done anything for him yet.  So he gave Josh his number and later that day Josh told him I had an intramural game he could come to and we could celebrate.  Then he wanted to take us out to dinner, and we had this moment where I looked at Josh and I wanted him to text him back and explain how we couldn't, but I really felt like we should make an effort to go.  So we did, we asked our neighbors to watch Tate and we had Stacy bring some cookies and I made a card and we went to dinner with him and then he came to my game.  Then afterwards we all sang happy birthday.  It wasn't a very big deal at all, but the next day he texted Josh and said he hasn't had anyone sing happy birthday to him for 3 years and no one else day anything for his birthday.  So I was grateful Josh ran into him and we were able to do something really small for him.

I wanted to make sure I documented these experiences.  I think writing down our experiences reminds us Heavenly Father answers prayers.  If we really want experiences, he'll give them to us.  I think I've missed probably hundreds of chances to serve or share the gospel because I didn't follow an idea or thought.  So I'm trying to just do what I feel I should.  These have been really, really small things, but they've been big to me.  I really want to be a part of the missionary wave.

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Videos and More

As promised, here are a bunch of videos from the past few weeks.  Now here's the disclaimer...most of these are probably boring to everyone but me.  After we took the one of Tate doing his bubbles, Josh reminded me that we already have multiple videos of him doing the same thing, to which I replied "but we don't have a video of him doing this as an almost 9 month old baby!"  So yes, I am obsessed.  And yes, these videos are probably too long and not very exciting, but I love them!  Just know I am aware I am an obsessed first time mom.  That's my disclaimer.

We went to our friends', Brooke and Gordy, house on Sunday.  They used to be our next door neighbors until Gordy got a good job, and they decided with their income, they could afford a place with AC.  They have a 15 month old son named Charlie.  He is the epitome of energy.  Tate is wild, but Charlie is just full of energy.  I love it!  Brooke and I used to go to the park when Tate was pretty little and Charlie made Tate look as lively as a potato.  Well, when we went to their house Tate loved playing with Charlie and Charlie loved playing with Tate.  They were making each other laugh.  Tate was like the little brother who follows the cooler, older brother around.  In fact, Tate was trying to be just like Charlie.  Charlie can walk and he was standing and holding the ball.  Tate was standing holding on to something and then he let go and lunged forward toward Charlie like he was just going to walk over and play.  He didn't.  He biffed it pretty hard.  But, he didn't cry, which I thought was pretty impressive.  When we put Tate to bed in their room, Charlie kept going to the door.  Like he was trying to save Tate or something.  Like Brooke said, "this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."

This video was supposed to show Tate making a really funny face.  I was doing fish lips to him and he was really confused and almost concerned.  His face was priceless.  But of course, as soon as we turned on the camera he stopped doing it.

These two videos are of Tate and Josh and me at my new favorite place in Utah.  Nielson's Grove.  I love it.  It's a beautiful park.  Unfortunately, I talked it up a little too much to Josh and I compared it to Central Park.  When we got there he was a little disappointed.  But we still had fun with Tate.

This is from a while ago.  We went to Kiwanis Park and Tate had a blast.  I'm not sure why the video is sideways.

This was one of the funniest moments I have had with Tate.  He was asleep and we were in the grocery store and then all of a sudden he lifted up the cover.  I could not stop laughing.

I can't remember if I posted this already.  It's really short and not a great video, but it documents Tate's first time ever on a trampoline.  There is a house on 800 north that has a trampoline on the front lawn.  I knocked on their door and asked if Tate and I could jump on it.  The girl said yes and so we jumped for a few minutes.  Tate didn't quite get what was going on and it was probably more exciting for me than it was for him.

Sunday we had Stake Conference and it was awesome!  Probably the best I've ever been to.  These pictures below are from right before we left.  We gave Stacy and Andrew a ride and they were waiting outside our apartment and took a few pictures.  Can I just say now, Josh and I have a really funny child.

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Another Post

The ducks at my favorite park.  This one has an afro.

I took so long to publish my last post, I decided I would write another one and post them at the same time.  I don't know what it is but right now blogging has become less of a priority than it was.  But it's starting to work its way up to a higher spot again.  Tate is so big and so old, well old for an almost 9 month old baby.

He is starting to let go of things when he is standing up and try to stand by himself.  He can hold himself up for what seems like a long time, probably 5 seconds.

Last night we had stake conference.  Tate was being the crowd pleaser.  He was being so funny I couldn't help but laugh at some of the things he did.  He was playing with this other baby girl in front of us.  They would touch each other's hands.  At one point Tate pulled out her pacifier straight from her mouth.  He crawled under the bench to visit the people behind us (we had no idea who they were).  And he played peek-a-boo with them too!  He would squat down so he couldn't see them and then pop up and then go back down and up again.

We also went to Nielsen's Grove again, but this time we took Josh.  It's my favorite park right now.  We saw the ducks and played in the grass.  We wanted to see how far Tate could crawl, so we would go somewhere and coax him to crawl to us.  He went pretty far!  Towards the end, he would take breaks and look behind him.

Josh had an interview at Texas Tech this week.  He left Thursday morning and got back late Friday night.  So it was just me and Tate for two days.  On Thursday we did a lot of random things to make the time go by.  We went to the BYU stadium farmer's market and to the BYU bookstore.  Those were fun activities.  Friday, Stacy and I and Tate went to the practice field and ran some sprints.  It was a harsh eye opener to how different my fitness is now.  Tate was confused by what we were doing.  He would crawl to us and then we would start to sprint, then he would finally get to us and we would sprint again.  Eventually he started crying and while one of us ran the other entertained Tate.  He loves Stacy!  He would watch her and crawl to her and really only wanted her to hold him.  Luckily she is his self-declared godmother.

Last night Josh and I made one of our new favorite meals.  Fried Rice.  We've made it in the past, but it was just recently we found the best recipe!  We were both happy about our dinner.

A post of just our recent videos is on its way.  Stay tuned!

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A Lord of the Rings Halloween

The biggest spit up of Tate's lifetime.  10 oz worth of milk all over the bed.

Tate's girl twin, Tatum.

Baby Gollum

Wow, so many things have happened since I last wrote I don't even know where to begin.  Unfortunately, I don't really remember anything from two weeks ago (which probably means nothing super amazing happened).  So I guess I will just reminisce about this past week.  This week felt so crazy, but I am not sure why.  I think it's because Tate was so cranky this past week.  And most of the time he was cranky, I was pretty cranky myself.  That is not a good combination.  His naps were a lot shorter than usual (which means not a lot of time for me to get stuff done) and he would wake us just as upset as when he went to sleep.  And the night time has been crazy too.  Yesterday at Church, our neighbors asked, "was Tate really upset this morning?"  And by this morning they meant "at 5:30 am when he was screaming."  We said "yes."  We were using the nose sucker to clear out his nose and he did not like that at all.  He has been sick with a stuffy nose and yesterday Josh and I think we saw incoming front teeth.  But we are not sure.

Saturday we had our ward Halloween party.  Last year Josh and I were in a bit of a last-minute scramble for our costumes.  I love love love making Halloween costumes, but I did not enjoy the stress last year, so we started early this time.  We were characters from "The Lord of the Rings."  I was Frodo, Josh was the eye of Sauron, Tate was Gollum, and Nathan was the Ring (Sarah is out of town on a trip, so we adopted Nathan into our family for the day).  We paper-mached a hat that looked like the tower and then the eye went in between the two spires.  I made the skeleton of the hat with a cardboard box and paper.  The eye was a balloon.  Josh wanted to be the Eye last year, but it didn't happen.  This year, my sister and her fiance were the Ring and the Eye.  So we saw how they did it and kind of did it the same way, but not quite.  We won first place in the costume competition at the ward party.  Tate stole the show.  He was in a loin cloth with a few scraggly strands of hair attached to the top of his head with corn syrup.  He crawled around the cultural hall and he looked like gollum.  Everyone got to see him crawling around and people started calling him baby Gollum.  I was so proud. Tate didn't win his cute baby competition (but thanks for everyone who voted!!), but at least he won a prize because he makes a good Gollum.

This past week was also Sharon's birthday and for her party Josh and I made a whole lot of bread.  I actually really like making bread.  I made pretzel rolls, which I usually love, but I used a different recipe than usual and I did not like it as much.  We made bread sticks and some loves of bread with honey butter.  The next day we had a lot left over and I had bread and honey butter for breakfast, lunch, and mid-afternoon snacks.  I seriously had almost 10 pieces of bread.  And these weren't baby-sized.  They were thick pieces covered in honey butter.  It was funny, because that day Josh only had fruits and vegetables to eat.  So our eating habits were kind of switched for the day.

This week I also reached an all time low in my life.  I did laundry this past week, and I really struggle with laundry.  Well, I have a love/hate relationship with the laundromat.  I don't like that we have to take our laundry there and pay for it, but I love that we get to do it all at once.  But something about loading Tate and all the laundry in the car and then strategically unloading it into the laundromat really annoys me.  I can't carry everything at the same time, so I usually put the laundry in the car, then get Tate out of the house and put him in the car.  Then once I get to the laundromat I get Tate out of the car and use him (in his carseat) to prop the door to the laundromat open.  Then I get the laundry and drag it into the laundromat.  Then I get Tate and push everything to the washer.  It's not a bad system, but for some reason I always get upset doing it.  I think it's because Tate feels like he weighs 100 lbs in his carseat and carrying him and our laundry (which is also surprisingly heavy) gets me frustrated.  I usually mutter to myself "how are you so heavy!"  It's a silly reason to get annoyed, but the emotions I feel are real.  So, this time I decided I was not going to put myself in a situation that I knew would make me annoyed.  Instead, I went to Smith's and got a shopping cart.  I put Tate in the cart along with all of our laundry and pushed Tate and our clothes to the laundromat, which is only a block or two away.  I looked like a homeless person.  I was in sweats and my hair was out of control.  Tate was also in sweats and had food and grossness all over himself and his clothes.  So Tate and I went back and forth from the laundromat and our house throughout the day with our shopping cart.  My mom told me I was lucky someone didn't offer me money, and I said hey if someone had offered me money I would've gladly accepted.  I went with Tate to pick up our clothes and a little boy said "why does she have a cart?"  And when I went to get one of our loads out of the dryer, the clothes were really wet.  So I went home to get more quarters and came back.  When I went to put my quarters in I realized I hadn't pressed start when I first put them in.  So I pushed start and Tate and I walked home.  Despite that minor setback, it was a rather smooth experience, which I credit to the shopping cart.  I just might use it next time.

Friday I knew I wasn't going to have time to jog, so I decided to cross train and do some jump roping.  I didn't want to do it in my apartment, because it would be loud for everyone else.  When Tate went down for his nap, I went out on our front porch and jump roped there.  I also set up my computer on a chair and had netflix playing.  I couldn't see anything and I could only hear it everyone few minutes, but it still made the time go by faster.  I am sure I looked really strange to everyone who drove by.  The next day my calves were so tight.  My left calf is still really tight.

So last week I did a lot of things that were kind of socially awkward...I am excited for what this week will bring.

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A tooth, a cold, a few restless nights

It's hard to believe Tate was this small.

Tate is sprouting another tooth!  It is right next to his first tooth and is almost out.  On Sunday he was chewing on my necklace and he must have gotten his lip in between his tooth and my necklace, because he started crying and we looked and his lip was bleeding.  Not too badly, but it looked like it hurt.  So he is learning how to manage his teeth.

This morning he woke up with a stuffy/runny nose.  I'm not really sure if its from the incoming tooth or if he is sick.  I think he's sick, because he has been really tired and has been sneezing a lot.  The past few nights he has been crying a lot and waking up multiple times for a long time.  So we are all a little tired.

I decided I really needed to vacuum this morning.  So I got out the vacuum and Tate immediately got nervous.  I held him while I vacuumed and he rested his head on my shoulder.  Then I turned it off and he kept his head on my shoulder.  So I sat down and he kept it there for a while.  He must've fallen asleep because he doesn't ever sit still like that.  He eventually started wiggling, trying to get into a comfortable position (when he sleeps, he looks like he fell asleep praying- curled up on his knees with his bum in the air).  He woke up and looked a little confused.

Today he said "dada" a few times and "mama" too.  He doesn't know what those words mean of course, but he's saying it!

General Conference was awesome!  I felt so uplifted.  Our friends Ryan and Julie Hunter and their daughter Charlotte came down for the Saturday afternoon session.  She is 6 months old.  She is so tall!  Which makes her look skinny.  They said she is in the 97% for height.  Tate looked huge next to her.  And his head looked extremely large.  It was fun to see them.

We went to my grandparents' house on Sunday and my aunt Cortnie and uncle Matt gave us their old baby boy clothes.  It is so much!  I  am so grateful, because I was starting to think about things we needed to buy for winter.  But now I think we are set for a while!  And my coach Aleisha continues to bring by things.  We are so blessed.  One thing she brought over is a leather jacket and I have a jacket that is similar, so Tate and I are going to be matchy matchy one of these days.

Last night we had FHE with our friends the Heaps and the Davis's from our ward.  We played this game called coo.  It's a card game and you have a partner and everyone is trying to get four of the same card and when they do they signal to their partner and their partner says "coo" and you get a point.  But if someone sees you trying to signal to your partner they can say "coo on you" and they get a point.  So Josh and I decided our signal would be yelling "I got four" really loud (Josh has used this tactic before).  Most of the time people use really subtle things as their signal.  The first round I got four really fast, in under a minute, and I said "I got four" and Josh said "coo."  Everyone was kind of surprised at our signal, because it is so obvious.  After that, we had to change our tactic to saying a certain number when we got four.  But the whole time we would say other numbers, so people wouldn't know which number it was.  That one worked too.  It was a fun game.

Last week, Josh and I made chinese food and it was so awesome!!  Seriously, it was so so good.  The whole time I was eating it, I felt like Bill Murray on "What about Bob" when he's eating at Dr. Marvin's house and the whole time he says "mmm" "mmmm."  That was me.  I got the recipe from a blog and it was great.  It was also good because usually when we try something newish, it ends up being a semi-disaster.

Here's a video of Tate being pulled in a wagon at Grandma and Grandpa Clark's house.

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