I'm Thankful (just a few days late):

- For healthy, happy, beautiful children.

- For noggin. :) (It's channel 165 here, if you're one of those still using Nickelodeon as your ---ahem--- occasional babysitter-- no commercials-- so much better)

- That I have two girls and that future Thanksgivings will consist of lots of estrogen in the kitchen while I teach them to make pies and all sorts of homemade deliciousness (of course I'll have to learn to make a homemade pie by then, but I'm confident that it's not too late. And mom, I know you already taught me-- my fault it didn't stick :))

- That the feast of Thanksgiving is over and A. we get to decorate for Christmas and B. maybe, JUST maybe I'll be able to get my eating in check at least some time before the Christmas binge begins. (I'm not counting on it, but I figured writing it down might help.)

- For those people that make sure and pull to the left when they're in the right lane but not turning right, so that you don't have to wait for the green light to make your right turn. (That's a nice way of saying that the people that don't do that drive me CRAZEEEE!)

- For a killer husband and daddy in my house. I know people get sick of hearing "my husband is SOOOOO great"-- and 'Ser. so blessed' would like to barf all over me--- but he is. So deal with it. He is totally my own Edward Cullen, and for that, I'm so grateful. ;)

- For a new backyard!! (I can't believe I haven't blogged about this yet, since we have recently transformed our DIRT lot to a yard with grass, and plants, and stamped concrete..... hooray!

- For those shirts that have a seam above your chest, a tight band at your hips, but blouse out over your belly. I heart you blousey shirts. Oh what would I do without your magic?

- That my girls got Ross' big blue eyes.

- For Trader Joe's frozen brown rice-- it's a revolution. I hope I never have to make my own brown rice again.

- For a strong and healthy body .

- That I get to be a woman, bear children, stay home with them, and feel the trials and the JOY that come with that every day.

- For temples, and celestial marriage. (If the angry protestors outside of the LDS temples had any idea how sacred those buildings were..... the whole thing makes me cringe)

- For my testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Happy Late Thanksgiving. I hope yours was special.

In honor of MA-bay-bee turning one: a few flashes back

Here's my big almost-toddler. Now let's go back...

Woah mama. THAT of course, is where her little life started. Somehow at the end of pregnancy, (in my experience) you're so used to being so large and in charge... I didn't actually mind having a picture taken, felt quite glowy actually.... it must be the Lord's way of helping us cope with so much "junk" if you know what I mean. (if you don't know what I mean, I'm referring to the in-the-trunk kind of junk, not like hardships or anything....ya follow?) Because now when I revisit that time.... well for my happy little cherub, I'm so grateful to have been through it... but oh SO happy to be past it... for now.
Yup-- that's her, with all that black hair. Crazy huh--

days old...

1 month.

Six months.


And a year. It went by about as fast as this made it look. Seriously, where does the time go? I'm afraid to blink....

I already did my little one-year-bit on Mila. But today, I'm just scared at how fast it's all going and really thankful for this sweet babe. She is a jolly little girl (which is SO not showcased in these pictures... I just scrolled back through and noticed the lack of big 5-toothed smiles, but just trust me) I'd be lost without her scrunchy happy-face and her hearty belly laugh and especially? especially.... that thing she does while nursing where she grunts and points at my pony-tail until I let it out, so she can gently stroke my hair while she drifts off ... She is my tactile, little snuggle-bug and we are all IN love. We needed her in our family.

My seesta's shower

She and the host, one of her best friends, Monica.

Kirk had been in town for his work on Friday and offered to take Sophia down to SD early with him. Ross, Mila, and I, would of course follow after Ross got off work just a few hours later. Ha.... sucker....

Ross came home feeling a bit under the weather, and while he crashed on the guest bed (ours was covered in folded laundry--- you don't want to see what happens to my house on "pack-for --out-of-town day") I made the "could you maybe, possibly, consider, perhaps.... " phone call to my parents... and got the SUPER-Nana and Papa approval... "yes go ahead and enjoy your peaceful night while we enjoy our granddaughter. See you in the morning." Woo hooo!!

It doesn't seem like much. But with Mila in bed by 6:30, Sophia's progressively later and more difficult "8 o'clock" bed-time can get really tiring. Usually never really ending 'till like 9. So an evening for two from 6:30 on? Just what the doctor ordered. Har Har.

So we pulled in to town just in time for Mel's shower, which is why Mila made it into the shower post. NOT because I had her there. I had two free hands for shrimp cocktail and chocolate PB cupcakes the whole time. Thanks Ross. :)

Sophi-onics... or something like that

"Mommy you're the BEST", she says with all the exuberance of one of her favorite Noggin characters....

"Sophia, you're the best", as my heart melts... while I'm sick of EVERYONE on noggin, it's my Sophia. It's precious.

"No I'm not! I'm a girl! You're the best!"

wait a minute.

and suddenly, even though she's smiling her sweetest smile and clinging to me like a little monkey, I'm not so sure this is a compliment at all ...

It's so interesting watching them learn to speak. Sometimes I really do wonder if her words hold the same meaning for her as they do for me. Most of them do I think. But then she says things like "Daddy's a boy, mom! Not a man. Papa's a man, Daddy's a boy and I'm a girl and mommy's a girl and Mila's a girl.... (she rattles off this new found list of information multiple times a day).

And then I think how confusing it must be sometimes to hear me say for example, how much I love her and Mila and Daddy, but to also hear me confess (probably with just as much enthusiasm) my love for chocolate and ice cream, and quiet time, and rain. I'd hate for her to think I really do feel for her just like I do about the new smooth-riding plastic carts at Super-Target.

Then sometimes it feels like I'm watching someone learn a second language, knowing the main words needed but forgetting how to assemble them all. "Whoooooooo somebody turned off my teedee show (tv)?!" or "Whooooo somebody colored on my paper?!" (who colored on my paper?) That one's so cute to me, sometimes I don't even repeat it back correctly. Don't tell her speech therapist.

Did I ever mention Sophia's in speech therapy? Sometimes I'm not sure she needs to be. But she was definitely a bit slower to talk than a few of her friends... and then she really got rolling and communicating, but a lot of the words were really hard to understand... especially if you're not me. Lot's of dropped consonants at the end, no hard G's or K's, no S-with-another-consonant combination (and that seems normal if they say, for example, "sand" instead of "stand" but she'll drop the S at the beginning and the consonant at the end so it comes out as "tan"... and that's pretty hard to figure out, if it's slightly out of context.

The whole thing stresses me out because I DON'T want to make something of nothing and give her a complex like she needed special help, when I KNOW how bright and amazing she is. But I don't want to miss a chance to get her up to speed if she's not. I feel like this whole real-mom thing is coming on so fast. She was a tiny baby, now she's in preschool AND speech therapy. Next thing I know she'll be getting kindergarten kisses like little Grace Smylie! (If you haven't already checked Sarie's blog, you should now, you'll thank me) Oh... motherhood. You think you're there, and then each stage makes you feel like NOW you're there. I'm thrilled but sometimes terrified for all of it. Sigh....

Off to SD for my sister's shower this weekend. Ciao.

Guess who's birthday is TODAY?!

I'll give you some hints:

- She's deliciously chubby
- Doesn't care if her face is covered in snot, in fact, would much prefer it to the remedy. (I'd sort of forgotten what a nightmare that is since Sophia now makes me pick even the most invisible booger, and then says "your fingers are too big mommy.")
- Has an asymmetrical three teeth on top, and has for some time-- who doesn't love asymmetry?
- She laughs the hardest at her daddy and her big sister
- She snuggles most with mommy
- She scoots around on her bottom blissfully, and a little violently, in the bath tub as if to say "look at me! No hands!... sloshing and tipping every which way. I can't quite describe it, perhaps I need to get back into video...
- She knows what she likes and makes it very clear with garbled words, shakes, and nods... isn't it amazing how much more aware you are that they are TOTALLY communicating as babies with your second? Or maybe that's just me. But the conversations feel natural this time around. You know?
- She rolls her eyes at me (practically) when I try to feed her something pureed and orange-like, much more into people food, mostly the good stuff like cheese and avocado, berries, pasta, pizza, chk. nuggets (gasp!) --- and mama's milk... all of which probably help explain bullet #1.
- She is a squishy little bundle of all the wonderful baby things. She challenges me mostly when she's sick or tired or hungry... who could blame her? If I could cry and cry when my body felt off and have someone come to the rescue... I SOOOO would.

Any guesses? hah.

Happy Birthday to my sweet one-year-old, Mila.

Bailey Family Pictures

Another fun little learning experience* that took up a little computer time... which equals blogging time. My gorgeous friend Shea and fam.
*Emphasis on the "learning experience" since I learned I need tricks up my sleeve to keep a little one content to stay somewhere near his family and that 4 o'clock is NOT the perfect lighting, just not nearly enough light... equalling less than sharp photos. (So don't pop out uh-k?) To you photo-friends, what IS the perfect lighting when you live somewhere that NEVER gives you a cloud??? What's that magical time of day?

Template Stress

So it shouldn't be that big of a deal. And I'm not one of those people that doesn't like change. I really do like change. I get bored. (Accept with people I love... don't worry Ross.) But if I'm going to take the effort to change my header, or my template, or my width... or whatever, I want to like it. And now that I've started messing with it, I just can't figure out what I like best! So I might just have to change it weekly until I fall in love, or get tired of poking around in the layout tab.

But for now, like tonight at least, we're back to narrow since I can't stand my header not fitting the width of the rest of the blog and can't figure out how to get it to. I tried starting fresh with a different picture just in case, to no avail. (Hence the new photo on top.) But the narrow template means that the GINORMOUS picture that I did of Mila's face shows but one eye. Oh well. Who scrolls down anyway right? (I totally do, I'm a catcher upper.)

So don't be scared when you don't recognize my blog from one day to the next. It's me, uncommitted, inconsistent, sometimes-changing, (not ever-changing, that's too much commitment to changing... ) me. Thanks for stopping by.

Since right now her poor nose is a flood of snot, here's a sweet, snotless memory from last week...

Can you believe she'll be a YEAR old, one week from today?

For 17 dollars...

I'm sure the quality is not the absolute best. But, for like 17 dollars, I ordered these macro filters for my 30 mm f/1.4 prime lens on my D40 (idea from Allie Hoopes, check out her blog for tons of fabulous tutorials and ideas) and now I can shoot this close:


with the same light and bright, short depth of field, fabulous lens. This is without any cropping. Also, without any cropping, this is as close as I could get before with the same lens:


Pretty cool eh? Oh and these are like the yummiest sugar cookies ever, recipe from friend, Tabitha, who threw that little Halloween party in my photos. Hers look like pumpkins, or some other cute holiday object with colorful frosting, lots prettier than mine. But mine made me just as fat and happy. The secret (at least that makes them SOOO good to me) almond extract in the frosting. Yum. Maybe I'll have to post the recipe next time. outa time!

My daughter Hop, or Pho, or Ohp, or Ppppph ... it depends

She has three of the letters in her name down. She knew "O" pretty well before preschool, TOTALLY learned H's one day at preschool and came home writing HoHoHoHoHoHo all over the house. It really did bring the spirit of Christmas a little early. And then one day while writing those two with me, and watching me write her whole name, she made a line with an "O" at the top for her "P". After I stopped cheering and clapping and fixing my skirt, post- cartwheel, she decided it was a good thing and hasn't stopped since. "I want to draw my name!" and then she covers the paper in H-O-and P (now she's starting to add in the I's occasionally but sometimes they're bottomless and so, more like a T), she really WANTS to do the "S", but that one must be really hard because she'll trace and trace and trace and then try her own, which results in a sort of squiggly line that lets loose in loops covering the entire page. It's amazing sometimes what they perceive. And there you have it. She won't stop. "My name, my name!" you could hear it from the neighbors house if you're ever there, she's so proud--- my little Pppppppho.

(I'm a little proud too, can you tell?)

Testing big....

Thanks for sharing your BIG secrets with me Kara!

From the mouths of babes...

I hope this isn't inappropriate to put this on my blog-- but tonight was the first time (with me) that Sophia wanted to say the prayer all by herself and I thought I might want to remember it. It went something like this.

"Heavenly Father, thank you for this day, and for church (those were with my lead of course... but then) NO I DO it mysewf-- and I go to circle time (at her preschool), and Daddy fix my bed, (she doesn't really do consonants at the ends of words so it's more like be-- ) and I play with toys, and Mila play with toys, and Daddy fix the wall (???), amen."

Hmmm. Not sure if they were requests... or expressions of gratitude, but it was darn cute.

WAY too many Halloween photos...