Life Lately

May seemed to mark the beginning of summer in my mind. We have 8 garden beds that hadn't been tended to in a loooooooong time and I attacked those with a vengeance this month. Then Kyle got me a ton of succulents for Mother's Day this year explaining that I've proven I can keep the kids alive so I'm probably ready for plants haha. Between the two, I inadvertently discovered a hobby of mine; gardening. It's really therapeutic being outside just working. It's hard for me to sit still and not do something productive for long periods of time. Gardening helps me stay active and feel like I'm accomplishing something. Also, I get tan ;)

My mom has quite the succulent garden herself and she's given me lots of tips on how to care for these things. I love the variety! I'm not a huge fan of color, but I am a fan of shapes and succulents come in SO MANY SHAPES.

For Jillian and Natalie's bachelorette party we decided to try our hand at Aerial Yoga. I was SEVERELY underprepared for this!! It was a total blast but I couldn't lift my arms over my head for a good 24 hours afterwards. I'm so stoked for them to get married!

With the weather warming up significantly, the kids and I have been making it a goal to get out in the morning. I am NOT a homebody and get a little stir crazy if I don't leave the house once a day! The mornings are our best time to go do something. We've been to about 15 of the 53 parks in the Provo/Orem area already, but there's still so many more to visit! The splash pads have opened up too and we've been going to them at least twice a week. I joined a group of moms via my friend Danica, who have a goal to get out and explore Utah this summer. We've got an Instagram, Facebook page, and blog where we post our reviews of hikes, parks, and splash pads. It's been an awesome resource! Also, I have to send out a ton of interwebz love to my sister, Nicole. She's been a lifesaver this summer in helping me with the kids. She's made exploring with them an actual joy instead of a hassle!

We got a double stroller this week after Milo legit nearly killed himself. We were at the library and while I was checking out our books, he ran out through the automatic doors into the parking lot, where a car skidded to a stop 3 feet away from him. I've never been more scared in my entire life and I'm about 96% sure I have a huge chunk of hair that turned gray from the experience. And I know this is payback for all the times I did that to my parents and that "it's the first of many" and yada-yada-yada.

Anyway, yes. Double stroller. GAME CHANGER. Though some of us are more excited about it than others ;)

For our date night in May we went to the new X-Men which is pretty good but I like Days of Future Past better. For Father's Day/June's date night I found a great deal to go river rafting down the Provo River. It was the worst day to go, weather-wise, but it was still a total blast. Mostly cuz Kyle made it so.

The kids are doing just great! Livvy has started getting mobile, and by mobile I mean we have a butt-scooter. For some reason I never thought we'd have one of those, but she proved me wrong! I think there's just a lot of her to try and move so she found the easiest solution. Livvy is eating nearly everything in sight. The baby-led weaning we tried with her was a fantastic success. 10/10 would recommend. Her favorite foods include mangoes, yogurt, and avocados. We moved her into Milo's room after transitioning her to a crib (she was in a rock n' play for a while since it helped with her acid reflux). She's saying "mama" and "dada" and is MUCH more attached to people than Milo was! She adores her brother and thinks he's hysterical.

Milo is finally, finally (!!) speaking! Kyle had to go on a long distance move and as we watched him leave, Milo turned to me and said "wheredadgo" - just like that; no distinction between the words at all! Now he's proficient in "wow what's that!", "broken!", "she's sad", and "wash hands". His imagination has exploded and it's been fascinating watching him start to use his toys in all different ways. He loves to line up his cars, read books, and throw the trains down the stairs. We're working on sharing things with Livvy. If she's fussy I'll ask him to pick out a toy to give her and that seems to have been fairly successful. He goes a million miles an hour, whether it's running around, thinking, or sleeping.

As a mom, I've had a few firsts with him this month; some kid started bullying him on the playground and pushed him down. It was awful to watch and I know that was harder for me than him (Milo didn't even react). Man though, if it's hard at this age I can only imagine what the teenage years are gonna be like!

very concentrated

Livvy is old enough now that Milo can interact with her and it's probably the cutest thing I've seen in my life. I try very hard to keep in mind how close they'll be in their later years when things get chaotic during the witching hour!

Shoutout to my SIL Megan for MAKING this for the kids' room. It's perfect!

May was a great month for us. I have never truly appreciated the sunshine until this time in my life. It does all our souls good!

April Showers, Hikes, and Family

Yes, even though we're well into May I'm still a bit sad to see April go. I LOVE that month! Flowers start blooming, Costco gets their tulip bouquets in, my birthday happens (woot, woot 24!) AND my mom, brother, and cousin came down to Utah during their spring break!

They spent most of their time in southern Utah but we wanted to make sure we got some quality time in with them. We went to 2 BYU Men's volleyball games (go Cougars!) and then we went on a hike up to Stewart Falls (our April's "Explore Utah" goal).

Below are the pics to prove all of this is accurate ;)

Mom and the boys drove straight from WA to the Smithfield House to watch this game!

Our last Saturday and BYU did us the courtesy of winning the league championship match!

I somewhat underestimated the length of this hike, so I ended up having to carry Milo for the last mile. We got through singing a random song of "They're taking the Hobbits to Isengard!" and Daniel Tiger's "Trolley Song". My arms are still numb.

Due to aforementioned numbness, Kyle carried BOTH kids on the way back!

And now for a dose of reality, lest ya'll thought this was a perfectly lovely outing

In other news, we've been keeping an eye out for a new raincoat and boots for Milo since there's no WAY he'll fit into last years. Luckily we found both and April gave us the opportunity to try them out. That's the optimistic way of saying spring in Utah is bipolar and it's quite frustrating. At least Milo looked cute to make up for it!

For my birthday, Kyle took me out lunch at Pizza Studio (10/10 would recommend!), then an archery range, and to see the movie Zootopia (SO GOOD). At Girls Camp we always had an archery station available during free time and I really enjoyed it. I don't remember being quite as bad as I was going with Kyle, but it was still a lot of fun! We ended the night watching Fixer Upper with a big ol' bowl of popcorn and it just made me so thankful to have married my best friend.

April was fantastic but I'm harboring some hope that May will be even better. I'm on a quest to take the kids to all the parks in the Provo/Orem area, so I'm praying the weather cooperates soon cuz there's over 50 of them to hit up!

When You Give a Mom Some Laundry

When you give a mom some laundry, she'll try her darndest to get it washed.

She'll leave it in the hallway after taking it downstairs, and then remember there's dirty clothes still to grab and there's nothing left to spare.

She'll grab the dirty clothes, then notice all the toys. She'll quickly pick them up and, while doing so, decide to wash the sheets the toddler loves to destroy.

She'll strip the sheets from the beds, but then the baby starts crying and needs to be fed.

She'll stop and feed the baby and spend some time just thinking, "I should've pulled the chicken out; now dinner won't be amazing".

She'll walk over to the freezer, baby in her hands, get the chicken thawing then feel a tug on her pants.

The toddler's asking for milk, and she'll be happy to oblige. She'll go to set down the baby and find poop running down her thighs.

She'll give a cry of disgust, while the toddler peals in laughter; the baby on the floor just amused with the matter.

She'll run upstairs to change, after giving the toddler his milk. She'll come back down to make him dinner, only to find his milk has spilt.

Now two babies need baths and their clothes are both soiled. "Good thing I started laundry!" she'll think, only to remember that plan was foiled.

The Merry Month of March

The title is total lie. March is probably my least favorite month of the year. Actually, about mid-February through mid-March is my least favorite. It's the "blahest" weather, nothing really significant happens, and I always look forward to April so much that it seems to just DRAG on.

BUT we explored Utah again! This month we semi-cheated by heading to the Bean Museum at BYU. I hadn't ever been, even when I lived 5 minutes from it. I knew it'd been remodeled recently and that it was free, and indoors (which was necessary given March's bipolar weather), so the decision was kinda made for me.

Milo's got about 3 animals sounds down; "meow", "woof" and, "rawr", and he used them ALL. It was beyond confusing for him learning that butterflies don't make any of those noises.

Livvy, just along for the ride. She's taken to eating her lips constantly, so most of my recent pictures of her look that.

The animals were cool and all, but you know what was the best thing of the entire museum???

The outlet covers. Clearly.


We're all doing great over in our corner of the world. I wouldn't necessarily say I have spring fever, but I am looking forward to not having to bundle up every time we leave the house. I sat down this week and planned out our garden beds. I'm excited to have my own space to grow peas!

Milo's vocabulary has exploded this month. He doesn't speak very purposefully yet, but he will attempt nearly every word we ask of him. He gabbers constantly in his own language and Livvy finds it hilarious. This week I've been exploring all the hype about "baby-led weaning" that I keep hearing about. We honestly haven't really "let" Milo feed himself. When he was about 7 months old, he was going through a massive growth spurt. I was nursing him for 40 minutes, 5-6 times a day, and he would still wake up in the middle of the night super hungry which was unusual for him. He wasn't super into foods yet but we had to literally force him to eat something more since I couldn't keep up with his demand. It took a long, hard month of this but eventually he started eating everything in sight and was MUCH more content. Now though, we've all gotten into the habit of feeding him ourselves. I'm not sure how often he's actually touched food but I know it's not been too often. At a peak moment of crazy this month, I was trying to spoon feed him peas, but I also needed to feed Livvy, so I started nursing her while feeding Milo. Sometimes it takes a crazy moment to realize something needs to change! All this to say; we are working on Milo feeding himself right now and regulating how much he eats. From what I've read I know it's going to be a messy process and he'll take longer to eat than it would if we fed him but I really think we'll all be happier in the long run. Live and learn, right?

Livvy has just chunked up like mad. We weighed her last night and she's 20 solid pounds of blubber. Try as I may, I can't help comparing the two of them. Livvy is 2 inches shorter and 2 pounds heavier than Milo was at this age, which translates to ROLLS ON ROLLS and I'm not mad about it. She accidentally rolled over this month and that's about the extent of her mobility which is taking some getting used to since Milo was rolling EVERYWHERE around 4 months. She has been so much happier this month not having to deal with colic anymore. It feels like we've passed through the worst of the storm clouds and are finally seeing her sunny nature. She gives a HUGE smile when she catches your eye; it widens so much that it seems like she has to turn her head and look away because she can't take how happy she is seeing you. It's a smile that could bring even Ron Swanson to tears. That's not an exaggeration. She's discovered her feet this week which brings us to the "perpetually wet socks" stage of life. She had a few bits of applesauce and has gnawed on a sweet potato fry and wasn't a fan of either. I'm 100% serious when I say that I think she will soon be out talking Milo. I swear she already says "hi!" back to us.

I've been doing really well. 2016 so far has been like finding the pot of gold at the end of a rainbow and rolling around in it. There have, of course, been the small ups and downs, but I'm more mentally and emotionally prepared for them then I have been. I've really upped my dinner game. Going grocery shopping with my sister definitely makes it easier as it holds me accountable to actually go. My Duolingo app tells me I am now 19% fluent in Spanish. I can successfully read some sentences on the back of my Chipotle bag! I started working out this week (my body hasn't forgiven me yet). I have worn makeup every single day this year, in varying amounts, as well as made the bed each day. I'm proud of what I've done so far, but I'm even prouder knowing I won't be disappointed and beat myself up if I don't get a chance to work on a goal for a few days. It's very freeing being more gentle with myself and I hope don't soon forget that.