You're only a day away...

For our kindaversary (I wanted 'sortaversary', but we voted and I lost), Jason surprised me with tickets to the musical "Annie" at the Mt. Baker Theater. Now, I am not a musical- or play-person at all. However, Annie is my favorite classic movie of all time. When I was younger until probably the age of 5, I watched this movie every single day and knew all of the words to the songs and more importantly, the dance moves. I lived and breathed Annie. When I look back at certain times in my life, sometimes I think that different scenes of this movie are actually my own childhood memories. I longed to be little orphan Annie and spend two weeks at Daddy Warbucks' house for Christmas. Well, for Christmas, Santa brought me this movie to keep the Annie spirit alive with Reagan, and I have, once again, been singing "It's a hard knock life" over and over again in my head while I clean the house...just kidding, I'm a pretty good sport about cleaning. My parents were kind enough to watch Reagan for us and we went and partook in lots of Annie goodness. I don't know what my favorite part was - the actual musical or all of the little girls wearing Annie dresses and wigs. It was seriously the cutest thing. Because this movie had such an impact on me growing up, I got really choked up and perhaps shed a few tears during the songs and really touching moments. Not so much because of the acting, but just because for the first time in a loooooong time, I felt like a kid again. It was a memorable night. And it was really neat to watch it as an adult from more of a historical perspective. When I was a little kid, I don't think I had any clue that it took place during the Depression, so it was interesting to see. I never would have thought that me and musical would be in the same sentence together, but I had a great time. And because for all you non Annie-lovers out there, that was officially the most boring, yawn-worthy blog post ever, here is an iffy-quality video of Reagan shrieking at me during breakfast. What a goof ball.


p.s. My daughter now has 6 teeth...yikes! She has gotten them all in a month. Isn't that kinda scary? I have the teeth marks to prove it.

happyanniversarykindof

Tomorrow, January 28th, will mark the 3 year anniversary of us getting engaged. It's a far-fetched holiday, but I'll take all that I can get. And since we don't really celebrate Valentine's Day (we celebrate ValenTIMES Day, more on that at a later date), tomorrow's a pretty special day for us. It is also special to me because my parents got engaged on this same exact date many many years ago. It was completely by chance that Jason happened to propose on the same day, but it means a lot to me that we will always have that little connection with them. In my own little world, tomorrow represents the beginning of love and family.
Three years ago, Jason was driving me home to my wonderfully ghetto (can I say that here?) apartment in Provo. "The sweetest thing" (one of our favorite songs) was playing in the car. I thought this was by chance - silly me. He had it all planned out. He reached behind him and handed me white roses. My first thought: "Oh no, what did he do wrong that he is now apologizing for?" Jason has since explained to me that white represents innocence and the beginning of love....blah blah blah. Shows what I know, but as we passed each intersection, a car would drive in front of us through the intersection that had huge pictures of us on the side of each one. Sweet, sure, but if you know me - really embarassing. Still...sweet. Gotta love Jason, he planned this whole thing out to the very second. As soon as we reached my apartment, our closest friends were waiting, he got out and proposed, I said yes, and the rest is history. We got married, had a cool baby, and did some other stuff in between, but I am so grateful to always have him by my side. It's good to know that we are partners and that I always have someone on my side to support me and love me no matter what. I feel really lucky. Maybe I was just naive then, but I really had no idea the depth of love that I would have for him as the years pass. This love is multiplied with each thing we do in our life - have a baby, move, fail, cry, pray, love, laugh, succeed, fail again, etc. Thank you, January 28th, for existing so that my parents could get engaged, get married, have a cool baby (me of course) and that I could repeat this pattern many years later. Eternity awaits!

My girlfriend

I got picture happy the other night.
I know you were wondering what Reagan looks like asleep in her high chair from every angle, so these are for you. She is also demonstrating what I want to do after every feeding time with her - it is exhausting trying to get her to like anything but milk, beans, and mashed potatoes!



I just like her progression of facial expressions here. She melts my heart!



Playing with her new "friend" in the mirror.




Mayday! Mayday!

Who's a big girl?

*WARNING*
Okay, so maybe this is a brag fest, but let's all be honest here, when's it NOT going to be? Plus, I don't have a whole lot going for me right now besides being a mom so indulge me! Or at least don't rub it in... =)

Reagan's a big girl! I cannot say why, but this is a conversation that Baby Penny and I been having a lot lately. Maybe it's because deep-down, I think that if we can talk about her growing up too fast openly with each other, then maybe it won't happen so fast? I don't know. Anyway, as much as I resent the fact that she is no longer a sweet newborn always willing to cuddle in my arms and nurse all day long, she sure is getting fun. Here are some things she likes to do these days:

- She has recently learned to wave, and it just seems funny to me for her to be doing such a grown-up thing, especially since it's not a typical "baby wave," but more like a "Miss America Wave." Baby pageants, here we come...yikes!
- She has also learned to clap. Nana and Bum-Pa (my parents) taught her to do this during Stake Conference - such good examples of listening and being reverent! But I am grateful to them because it's pretty cute when she does it, which has been all day long lately. We've been playing lots of patty-cake, which brings me to the next thing she loves...
- "Toss it in the oven!" When we get to this part, she throws her arms up in the air and gives me a big, now-toothy (four - can you believe it? WEIRD) grin.
- She loves to make "scrunchy faces" and breathe in and out of her nose really fast. I don't know where she gets this, but it is really funny. She seems to do it most when she knows she is being mischievious.
- Drinking from a sippy cup. At last! I am so grateful for this because she has not taken a bottle since she was 8 weeks old, and now it is possible (though not likely) for me to get a break from her every once in a while to go run errands or just spend some much-needed alone time!
- Eating (a little) better. This has been a constant struggle for us, but we have finally found things she likes. I pretty much gave up with the Gerber stuff and we have started making our own out of most of the things that we eat for dinner, and she has been doing so much better. Maybe she just didn't like the packaged stuff? Most of it IS pretty yucky. She really loves beans of any kind - garbanzo, black, you name it. I think it's very weird but I'll take what I can get. And let me tell you, what they say is true - beans really are the "magical fruit." I'll let you interpret the meaning of that...

- Pulling up on things and standing - She loves to do this, but I'm not so grateful for it because now not only is she crawling everywhere, but she gets herself in the most precarious of situations and is such a disaster-waiting-to-happen it's not funny. She is pretty proud of herself though.
- She still loves nursing, but mostly at night when it's dark and there's not much to do or look at. (Much to my dismay) She gets most of her nourishment at night, which I am becoming more and more aware of by checking out the large dark circles under my eyes. We've got to do something about this.
- She still loves hugs and kisses, but they are fleeting, so I enjoy every moment I can get cuddling her before she launches off of me and on to some new adventure. What am I going to do when she is walking??
- Here is a picture of her newest favorite thing:

Lounging on a bean bag chair, sipping her sippy cup, and cuddling with a slightly creepy baby doll. She looks so grown up here! Where has the time gone? Luckily, she still isn't grown up enough to know you are supposed to be "sweet" to the baby, and spends most of her time with it poking its eyes and sucking on its hands. I'm sure it's only a matter of time though...

Thank You

We listened to President Bush's farewell speech tonight, and I must admit that I was moved to tears. I have an incredible amount of respect for this man. He was not perfect, but at least in my opinion, President-elect Obama has some pretty big shoes to fill. I really hate how much people in our country bad-mouthed him and every single decision he made or every single thing he said. However, this is completely to be expected when you are the leader of the free world, and by running for President, you're pretty much asking for it. You can tell that it didn't bother him one bit. This takes a very confident man who is comfortable with who he is and the job that he is doing. I love politics and would love to be involved in local politics someday, but I don't think I could ever handle the constant scrutiny and living my life under a magnifying glass. He said something tonight that really struck a chord with me and that I hope is written down in the history books, instead of all of his other verbal 'mishaps'...which I actually think are pretty endearing and not at all proof that he was a "bad president" in the least. He said (I may not get it exactly right, sorry!) "You may not have agreed with all of the tough decisions that I made, but I hope you agree that I was willing to make those tough decisions." Right on, George W. We elected him to make those tough decisions and MAN, did he have a lot of those to make during the past 8 years. We have been through so much as a country and I am extremely proud to say that I lived and "grew up" in the time that he served as President of the United States. It's a weird feeling. I have always had the utmost respect for him, but I never realized how much true appreciation I really had for him until tonight when I heard this speech. I am really going to miss him as our President. Who knows what the future holds. I'm sure that there will be some more "tough decisions" to make for our next President and I hope that he learns that he needs to make those tough decisions based on what's best for our country and not based on "what's popular." It may be something we have to learn the hard way. But, nonetheless, thank you, President Bush (who I am certain reads our blog) - you have made me proud to live in this country and I do thank you for making those tough decisions.

2009

This year has been great so far...all 15 days of it! I always want to blog, but I never have much to blog about unless we are doing really exciting things. This might surprise you considering the party animals you're dealing with here, but we are pretty lay-low kind of people...(wait, lay low? That sounds like we're hiding, doesn't it?) I think I meant "low-key" (yeah, that's better) kind of people. Jason is anything BUT low-key these days with work and school (7 1/2 hours a day this semester...yikes) but I never see him. So to me, he is pretty low-key around these parts. =) Reagan and I, on the other hand, have been having some quality one-on-one time together and I have been having the time of my life. I have tried to be better about not worrying about other silly things like laundry (silly laundry!) or dishes (silly dishes!) until she is down for naps or asleep at night, and so I have really been able to enjoy the time I have with her during the day. We've been crawling around everywhere, and I find it so interesting to see the things that she likes to do. She loves to "scratch" things. This may be normal baby behavior, or maybe not, but she loves to find all sorts of different textures everywhere. From the carpet to the fireplace (it's off, don't worry) to the tile floors to clothes - she just really likes to touch and feel all sorts of weird things. Forget her toys, she'd much rather scratch the grate over the fireplace. And I figure, she really needs a nail trim and I'm too scared to do it so I look at it as her doing some much needed nail filing. She is only 7 months old and already I feel as if I am living vicariously through her. She learns so much every single day and I just live for the moments where she does something new or discovers that she can do something that she thought she can't and her whole face just lights up. She does what I like to call the "body smile" where you can just tell that she is so happy and proud of herself with her whole being! Moments like that make me wonder why anyone wouldn't have a desire to be a mother. She is a master crawler now and most of the time she'll crawl to something she knows she is not supposed to play with (some say she's too young to know - no way! She totally knows when she's playing with something she's not supposed to) and just look back at me like "neener neener neener." At which point, I'll scoop her up and place her somewhere else and she'll look up at me like "are you kidding me?" and do it all over again. She is fast on those little hands and knees and she's already getting rugburn to prove it! I am just in love with this little girl. She is the most amazing little person. Sure, she may be a mama's girl, but at least for right now, I don't mind that she clings on to me with the death grip when even the intention of handing her over to someone else crosses my mind. Maybe I kind of like it. And maybe I kind of like it when she cries and reaches out to me when other people hold her. Maybe I kind of like it that when she falls and hits her head, or gets hurt, the moment I pick her up and give her a hug, she stops crying and gives me a big teary-eyed grin. Maybe I like that she wakes up every 2 hours at night to nurse because it's the only time when I can hold her so peacefully like that without her wriggling around and grunting...okay I could probably do with more sleep but honestly, she is the light of my life. She gives me hugs and kisses and she really MEANS them - even if it is at 3:30am, what more could I ask for? I don't want to create the impression that Jason is just absent from all of this, ha ha. Reagan is totally in love with her daddy and has so much fun "rough housing" with him when he gets home from work or school - things only a daddy can do! She loves to rub his five o' clock shadow (there she goes again with the feeling different textures! What a weirdo) and pull his hair, slobber on his face, and he is the only one that she will let rock her to sleep. I think it's a feeling of security or something, being in the arms of daddy. Jason works really hard and makes it so that my work can be fairly minimal so I can spend so much time with my darling little girl. I couldn't ask for a better husband/dad to Reagan. He's still a goof ball, but a hardworking and smart goofball and I'm grateful for him. YUCK huh...it's the worst when people talk about their husbands, isn't it? (jk)I'm sure all wives and moms could agree that they couldn't do it without the men in their lives. Like someone told me at Enrichment night tonight, we'd all be so much healthier if we weren't married, but not EMOTIONALLY healthier! haha. How true.

Here is a short video* of Reagan talking to her dadda (I think she even says 'daddy' in it if you listen closely!). I think she's telling him how much she loves him and also "holy cow, can you see that pile of laundry behind me? Mom needs to get her priorities straight!" =)



*I do apologize for the bad quality video. Yes, I do have a video camera - a really nice one, actually, from my parents, but for fear of breaking it or me just simply not knowing how to use it, I sometimes use my phone instead...which also explains that whenever I post a video, they are all 17 seconds long exactly.

Can you get any cuter?