it's up to me

I used to talk about Eric allllll the time on this blog. I was obsessed with him and our marriage! But ever since we had Mia (who we both are obsessed with) the focus of my topics have shifted, obviously (which I'm sure Eric doesn't mind because that means I don't take AS many pictures of him ;) ha)! But I've been thinking about this a lot lately... does the obsession I have with my daughter take away from the obsession I had with my husband?? The conclusion I came to is this, I don't really know. But I do know that I don't want it to!
Marriage is a tricky thing. Throw a baby in the mix and I don't even know what word to use to describe marriage. More than tricky, that's for sure! Any major change can throw a wrench in the relationship. I shared some recent struggles I (we) had here, and how I (we) overcame them here. I've been thinking a lot about our marriage lately and the good place we are in... I LOVE being married! I love that Eric is mine and I am his for eternity. I don't ever want to stop fighting to make us happier, because it's just worth it. The hard work is just. plain. worth it!
The other day I read this article and it really made me stop and think. I'm stealing this quote from the article: "It's not a spouse, or land, or a job, or money that brings us happiness. Those achievements, those relationships, can enhance our happiness, yes, but happiness has to start from within. Relying on any other equation can be lethal." This was a very real reminder that my personal happiness is just as important as any others happiness! Obviously I already knew this, but it just kind of hit me upside the head when I read that! To be a better wife, a better mom, a better friend, etc, I need to continually work on being a better me!
I really want that happiness that is contagious! I want people to want to be around me because of my happiness! I want my marriage to thrive because of my (our) happiness! Basically I'm just rambling here... but I want my life to be better because I work on my happiness in every aspect, spiritually, mentally and physically. That really is most important! And everything else will benefit. Funny how something so simple, knowledge I already had, can be so profound when I realize (once again) that the answer is so plain and obvious! I don't really know if this is making sense? But I just want to throw it out there that I promise to be a better, happier me (because like I said, I need the reminder! Even when life is going so good, but maybe those are the times I need the reminder most)! The end.
P.S. Happy Halloween!!
P.P.S. Red Sox Naaaaaaaaaaation. You better believe that Eric already bought out the World Series memorabilia in his size! Okay, only a hat and a shirt. But if he could afford it, he would have bought it all. THAT'S how happy he is right now ;)

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just some randoms {10}

Don't mind my crazy face, but say hello to Mia's poker face. There are times that while Mia is happy, she refuses to give a smile. I think she thinks she's sneaky and funny. So she is definitely the smiliest baby in the world, she still likes to change things up every once in awhile ;) ha ha!

She doesn't know what to think about this cold weather! It's almost too cold to go running outside :(

Mia's favorite "toy" to play with is car keys! And her absolute favorite place to be in the car is in front of the steering wheel! She just might be a car girl which would make her daddy proud ;)

Even though she is a mess, I really love this picture of Mia checking out her 98 year old great Grandma! (You can read more about it here.)

It's kind of a bad picture but I'm holding a week old baby (I forget how small they are!) and Mia went crazy! She was so excited and did everything she could to get her hands on her new little friend! No jealousy here. Mia wants her own tiny baby, ha!

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Mia's wish list

1|2|3|4|5

Sooooo... Mia's birthday is less than two months away. Yikes! If I'm already stressing about her birthday party (which will not be pinterest worthy), it's only fair that Mia is stressing about her wish list!
We already know that Mia would LOVE some puzzles. We don't have any yet, and I feel like the puzzles with knobs would be a fun way for her to learn shapes, letters, and colors with mom and dad :)
Mia's absolute favorite are books so that's definitely on the list! We really only have one activity book so a couple more would be the perfect present! I'd also love to get more hard (cardboard?) books, that way I won't have to worry about Mia tearing pages as she flips through them and drags them around the house!
I, I mean Mia, LOVES the minky blankets. And her momma does NOT sew (poor baby), so these definitely need to be gifted! And there's no such thing as too many soft, cute blankets for this mom and baby!
Of course Mia would love any toys, clothes and headbands (what? The girl loves her clothes and accessories... it's not all me)! And yes, if you're wondering, she will accept early birthday gifts ;)
P.S. Are we missing anything? What gifts do you think/know are perfect for a one year old??
P.P.S. I'm giving away AD space on Ali's blog! Be sure to wish her a Happy Birthday when you head over to enter the giveaway :)

a few of my current favorites

These two. Always and forever! Even though Eric is fake-cheesing it hard core so that I will hurry up and take the picture and be done with it ;)
Pumpkin food! Apparently I've outdone myself in the baking department because Eric is sick of pumpkin and won't eat it anymore. I don't know why he's complaining (okay, I'm complaining. I won't bake it anymore because I eat it ALL. No good for my badonkadonk) Who knows when I'll pick up the baking vibe again, if ever ;)
Our golden leaves! Between the glorious weather and the changed leaves, we have experienced perfect fall weather this last week. I am sure that I couldn't be happier about it!
Spin! I went to spin this week for the first time in months. Oh how I've missed it! I am dying to start taking classes at the gym again, but I also die a little lot inside thinking of taking Mia to the daycare and subjecting her to the nastiness of germs and snot-nosed kids. (I used to work at a gym daycare... I know how not clean it is. And I know other mothers take their sick children to the daycare. GROSS!) But I don't know what other option I have during the long winter months?
We all know I kind of hate where I live, but I admit that it's been so much easier these past few months. A huge part of that is the happiness that Mia has brought in my life. And she has taught me to remember that it truly is the little things that make the world go 'round! But mostly, Eric and I have been blessed to make amazing friends here! I am so grateful for them!
My new "mom" car :) It's my favorite! I can't wait to share pictures!!
Blogging! Duh.
Shellac. Why didn't I discover this stuff years ago?? Probably because it didn't exist. But I am loving getting my nails done and having them last 3-4 weeks without one. single. chip. Cheers to cute fingernails!
Instagram. I'm seriously obsessed. But I love posting the little details of Mia's life that I would otherwise not record and totally forget. I can only imagine how much more fun the captions will be under Mia's picture once she starts talking :) And heaven knows how I love to stalk others lives #truth!! So yes, Instagram is my favorite!
What are some of your current favorites??

redsox nation

Mia's headband c/o Sunnie Jae

It's official! I've lost my husband to the world series. This isn't something I'd normally blog about but sometimes I've got to be a supportive wifey and bite the bullet to blog about something my hubs takes serious interest in, ha ha. (I'm totally kidding, Eric. You know I love you and your love for the Red Sox!)
Side note: We were lucky enough to watch the Cardinals AND the Red Sox play during our California adventure. (Thank goodness for my obsession with taking pictures for the blog, Eric, or we wouldn't have proof of this ;)
Last night we watched game one at Ashley and Austin's house. They are huge Cardinals fans so we knew we'd have a good time giving each other a hard time (I mean, the husbands gave each other a hard time and the wives just supported their husbands and told them to quiet down when their hollering scared the babies)! We enjoyed good food, watching the babies play (I mean, watching the game), and we definitely enjoyed a good win! If the Red Sox keep this up I'm going to have an extremely happy husband on my hands :)
Who are you rooting for??

P.S. I have to add that my husband has been a Red Sox fan for forever, basically. Ever since he was a young little tyke :) He's been their loving (and disappointed, at times) fan through thick and thin. He's a loyal one and I'm lucky to call him mine, ha ha!! (But seriously!)

another one bites the dust

This carriage was lit up in the princess corner of Cornbellys. It's going to be so magical for Mia next year :)

Dang, guys. Thanks to Eric I am on a roll with checking items off my fall bucket list! Eric worked all weekend so he took Monday and Tuesday off, drove Mia and I up north and took us to Cornbellys (and of course we shopped at Cabelas and Scheels. Everyone wins!) We met up with Nicole, Vincen and their kids, this was our third year in a row going together. And we've already made plans go next year! In case you're wondering what they are... we are going to go on a Saturday during sunlight hours instead of when it's dark and freezing cold (it dropped at least 20 degrees from the time we pulled into the parking lot until the time we left, which wasn't very much time. BURRRRR!) And Eric will wear pants instead of shorts and I'll wear boots instead of sandals (we're idiots). Even though we didn't enjoy it as much as past years, I'm still glad we went! Next year will be so much more fun watching Mia run around and go crazy over all the fun little things for kids :)

soakin' it up!

I'm not gonna lie, I was super worried that we were going to skip over fall and go straight to winter because we have had such cold weather and snow more than once, yuck! But the last few days have been beautiful, perfect fall days. Yay!
I've been dying to go to Zion National Park and see the changing leaves so Laura and I took our girls and tried to walk her baby out ;) on Friday. The leaves aren't really changing (we suspect the leaves will just fall off the trees without changing because of the major amount of moisture we received this summer) but Zion was still beautiful! We did two hikes I've never done before and the views were killer on both! Most of the pictures are from the River Walk and the last two pictures are from the Weeping Rock.
Everyone should come visit Zion National Park and give me a call when you do ;) You can't beat the scenery here!

 

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happy 10 months to my love bug

10 months! And yes, the bow is actually as obnoxious as it seems in the picture. But I love it :)

- Our little mover figured out how to climb stairs on September 21st (one day after turning 9 months)! She LOVES to go up them but has no clue how to go down, ha ha! She's pretty speedy, too!
- Mia is getting better and better at standing all by herself! She stands the best when she is distracted by holding something in her hands.  It's so neat to see the triumph in her face when she is about to topple over but regains her balance just in time :)
- She has been nodding her head up and down for a couple months now, but she just figured out shaking her head from side to side in the past couple of weeks. She doesn't know that it means "no", obviously. It's stinking cute for now! I'm sure it won't be as cute when she shakes her head at me and means no ;)
- Mia's hair has been growing like crazy! It's gotten long on top and in the back... in other words she has totally sprouted a mullet :) It's not long on the sides but it seems to be filling in! I'm tempted to give her her first haircut one of these days!
- One of her favorite things to do is open and close doors. She will sit there for minutes (which is a big deal, ha!) and close the door, stick her fingers through the crack and pull it back open! She thinks it's especially funny when one of us is in the room on the opposite side of the door... it's her own version of peak-a-boo!
- Mia is SO giving of her kisses and it melts my heart! Just the other day I caught her kissing her book, looking at it and then laughing, ha ha! Who knows what was going through her mind? But I do know that books are her favorite and she has made the connection to kiss what she loves! And each morning when I get her out of her crib I snuggle her close and whisper "give me a kiss" and she always does! Now I need to teach her to blow kisses!
- She rarely eats baby food! Mia eats whatever we eat for all 3 meals! If we are out and about then I'll give her a pouch but seriously, she just eats off our plates if we go out to eat or eats whatever I make for dinner! And she'll eat anything. The girl loves her food!
- Mia loves crying babies! She gets so excited and laughs when she hears a baby cry! In fact, she loves to watch videos of herself on my phone, but her favorite video is one of her throwing a tantrum and screaming bloody murder ha ha!  She's a bit of a weirdo :)
- We finally put the 3-6 month clothes away (except for a couple shirts, her Gap skinny jeans and her 3 month jacket) and are dressing Mia in 6-9 month clothes, yay! It's been fun putting together new outfits! She stays in each size for so long that I get sick of the clothes!
- And she still wears size 2 diapers.

 It's hard to tell in this picture but she is totally standing by herself!

I think it's safe to say that these past 10 months went way faster than the 10 months (because really, pregnancy lasts longer than 9 months. Especially if you go past your due date) of pregnancy I endured to bring Mia into this world! And it's just. not. fair. But I wouldn't trade this time, or my pregnancy, for anything in the world! We don't know how we ever lived without Mia!
 

an important reminder

"In speaking of mothers generally, I especially wish to praise and encourage young mothers. The work of a mother is hard, too often unheralded work. Through these years, mothers go longer on less sleep and give more to others with less personal renewal for themselves than any other group I know at any other time in life.

Do the best you can through these years, but whatever else you do, cherish that role that is so uniquely yours and for which heaven itself sends angels to watch over you and your little ones.

  Please know that it is worth it then, now, and forever. 

May I say to mothers collectively, in the name of the Lord, you are magnificent. You are doing terrifically well. The very fact that you have been given such a responsibility is everlasting evidence of the trust your Father in Heaven has in you.

No one has failed who keeps trying and keeps praying. 

Yours is the work of salvation, and therefore you will be magnified, compensated, made more than you are and better than you have ever been as you try to make honest effort, however feeble you may sometimes feel that to be.

Rely on Him. Rely on Him heavily. Rely on Him forever. And “press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope.” You are doing God’s work. You are doing it wonderfully well. He is blessing you and He will bless you, even—no, especially—when your days and your nights may be the most challenging."

Jeffery R. Holland

Because She is a Mother 

To all my momma friends (and those yearning to become mothers), we are doing so good. YOU are doing so good! We must never forget...

our first night home

While we were in the process of being discharged from the hospital, I remember Eric and I agreeing that all we wanted to do was go home and cuddle in bed as a new family of three! We didn't get out of the hospital until mid afternoon so I called my mom and asked her to come the next morning. As we drove home I sat in the back because Mia was screaming bloody murder the whole drive home. Eric and I were super anxious, as you can imagine, especially being brand new parents. We had no idea how to console her. And I'll admit, I was dying a little inside because all the picture I'd seen of families leaving the hospital with their brand new baby, well, the baby was fast asleep in the car seat. Not Mia! We were afraid we'd never be able to take her anywhere! (No worries, Mia screamed the second time she was in her car seat but fell asleep as soon as we started driving. She's been a champ in that thing ever since!)

Once we got home I fed Mia and she calmed right down. We took turns cuddling her and made our game plan for the night! We wanted to be sure Mia go enough to eat so that she'd give us a few hours to sleep so we decided that I would feed her, and then we'd give her a bottle of infant formula. When the time came, she nursed like a champ (I think) and then we offered her the formula and she sucked it down! She ate almost the full 2 ounces! Eric took the bottle away because we realized that may have been too much for her tiny tummy but Mia was fast asleep as soon as the bottle left her lips. We tucked her in bed and climbed in bed ourselves. We literally high-fived each other thinking this was the solution to getting multiple hours of sleep :) We cuddled up real close, fed each others egos by praising our parenting abilities, proclaimed our love to each other (we were on a high thinking Mia would be out for hours) and closed our eyes to sleep.

BAM! Mia woke up screaming.

And she screamed the whole night (I think). We took turns with her. Walking around holding her, sitting down and cuddling her, giving her the bink, laying her in the bouncer, feeding her... I mean, we tried everything! I remember at one point asking myself why the heck I asked my mom to wait the next morning to come stay with us?? After hours of trying to get Mia to stay asleep, and needing serious sleep ourselves, we climbed in bed and Eric had Mia sleep on his chest. You see, before Mia I was SO against having kids sleep in our bed. We just weren't going to do it! As you can imagine, I felt like a major failure because we didn't even make it one night before bringing our baby to bed with us, ha ha (which is totally crazy because no that I can think straight? I say do whatever it takes to get sleep)! Those hormones, man! I think I got the most sleep that night since going into the hospital to be induced almost 4 nights earlier, which isn't saying much at all :)

Bear with me as I go back in time and try to recount all of my first memories with Mia. I didn't think to blog about it at the time, and I don't have documentation otherwise!
Mia's birth story
Nursing
Hospital story #1
Hospital story #2

a treat from our love bug

Sooooo... remember how I said I didn't want to dress Mia up as a bug for Halloween? Yeah. Mia's going to be a bug, ha ha! We were shopping at Costco when I came across Halloween costumes for $12 (you can't beat that for a baby!) so I started browsing. I pulled out the bug costume (it will still be a surprise on Halloween if you don't know what kind of bug, right??) and Mia went nuts! She started laughing and shrieking and clapping! I pulled out a berry costume and held it up to the bug costume. I thought she'd choose the berry costume because it was neon pink! After looking back and forth between the two, she got a huge smile and snatched the bug costume out of my hands and wouldn't let go! Seeing Mia's excitement for something she doesn't even understand made me that much more excited to experience the holidays with her!

So in the spirit of Halloween (and not having to stress about Mia's costume anymore) I'm offering 31% off ALL ad spots until October 31st! I bet Mia would start laughing and shrieking and clapping if every spot was bought up ;) Check out my sponsor page and use the code "lovebug" to receive your discount!

And since I don't have a picture of Mia dressed up, yet, enjoy this super original and cheesy picture of our costumes a few years back, ha ha!

Crappy quality photo brought to you by yours truly, the tacky tourists!

you know how weekends are supposed to be fun?

Kind of a bad picture of the St George Temple

You know how you have plans to go visit the in laws and have your husband slave away the whole time on his jeep, and then you find out you have to reschedule and now you have the whole weekend to do whatever you want? Even though we were sad we weren't going to visit with family, we were excited to finally have some down time! It was bound to be a good weekend.
You know how you have dinner plans with friends Friday night and you're so excited about it (okay, I was excited, Eric was indifferent because you know, he's a man) because you haven't been to dinner with friends on a weekend in months? And then dinner turns out to be really sick-to-the-nast and things start looking down for the weekend, instead of up. (Sorry Laura, it was gross and Eric was sick ha ha!)
You  know how rare it is to have babysitters for the whole Saturday and you and the hubs excitedly make a list of things you want to do, that you can't normally do with a baby... and you end up spending 6 hours at a car dealership instead? Yeah, totally not our idea of a good day date either. Keep an eye out on Instagram and I'll be sharing my new "mom" car as soon as it's delivered!
You know how you've spent all day at a dealership and the last thing you want to do is go to the tire shop next, but you have to go because there is a bubble forming on the side wall of your tire? And then you find out that the tire is coming apart and they have no idea how you've been driving on it all week without it exploding? Yeah, our Saturday has really gone down hill! My stomach still twists in knots thinking about how many times I drove on the freeway over 80 MPH (it's the new speed limit, holllllllah!) with my precious baby in the back seat... if that tire had blown? Yikes! But then they find one lone used tire that happens to be in perfect shape and only charged us $25 for tire and labor.... and I realize that our guardian angels have been working full time to keep my family safe and money in the bank. We are forever grateful!! Saturday isn't turning out as bad as it looked.
You know how you had babysitters for the whole day so you were planning on going to the Temple (because we haven't been since before Mia was born... TOO long!) but it's now 7:30PM and you still have to drive 45 minutes to get home and put the babe to bed? Well, we went to the Temple anyway! We had a glimpse of what true sacrifice is to some and my heart is so thankful we made it to the Temple. My spirit feels rejuvenated! We met a group of amazing people that truly changed my life that night. I am thankful for the example of a very handicap man and a wise temple worker who was not afraid to point out our blessings and teach us the importance of love and sacrifice! My heart is so full. Our Saturday turned out much better than I could have hoped!
You know how you were supposed to visit family but plans changed (giving us a weekend to do whatever we want, and we spent it doing almost everything we didn't want?) and then SURPRISE! Eric's parents ended up coming into town on Sunday and we got to visit for a few hours!
Despite things NOT going as planned, the weekend turned out to be better than we could have hoped! And I didn't even take pictures (except for this picture of the Temple and it's not even good) to prove how "awesome" it was! I'll stick that excuse under my list of weekend fails :)

Mia's 9 month photos {pt 2}

I look at these pictures and I get the biggest urge to just S Q U E E Z E her! I mean, she is the cutest!! Then I remember that she is mine to squeeze and love on forever. I am so blessed that this beautiful, loving and perfect baby is my daughter. 

Mia's 9 month photos {pt 1}

change is in the air

Today is my mom's 50th birthday so I figured this was the perfect time to review our weekend! My dad put together a surprise birthday lunch for my mom on Saturday and guess what? We totally pulled it off! My mom was so surprised which was so fun to see :) I was looking forward to spending the day hanging out but unfortunately Eric and I had to leave earlier than expected. Not the fun day I had in mind! But I'm glad we celebrated your birthday together, mom!
Sunday was a just the day we needed! We relaxed at home and listened to General Conference which was just what our hearts and minds had been craving! In between sessions we took a drive up the canyon to show Mia (like she cares) the changing leaves! The changes have started but in another week or two the whole mountain will be solid golds and reds! Hopefully we will be able to make it up one more time to see the complete change before the leaves fall off the trees!

We really  need to work on getting better family pictures (as in Trevor and Eric need to smile for real, and Mia needs to quit trying to swipe food when no one is looking, ha!)

Happy Birthday, mom!! Luckily for you, I have gifted you with the cutest grand daughter ever. It was a lot of work to grow her so perfectly and bring her into this world! But luckily for me, she is cute enough that I don't have to worry about birthday gifts for grandparents ever again ;) ha ha!