mornings with Carly.

most of the action around here takes place in the mornings.

Carly naps most of the afternoon, so we make sure to get our partying in early.

{sorry, all pictures from my phone. my camera had a stroke.}

~

Sometimes there is morning mirror time (closely supervised) while mommy tries to pull herself together and not look like death.

Often there is morning playing in the car time. Carly gets cabin fever easily, so we walk outside. She knows exactly which car is ours and loves nothing more than playing in the front seat. She will walk over to the car and pull on the door handle and scream until I let her in. Obviously a very good habit.

But she is all smiles once we're up there.

 If she is good in a store, I reward her with some front seat time in the parking lot, though that often leads to lots of screaming when its time for her to get strapped in her carseat.

One morning there was even a park adventure. It was supposed to be a workout for yours truly, but Carly prefers to push rather than to be pushed. And I didn't get much of a workout at her pace. Though she did, pushing her stroller up a grassy hill.

 Windy morning. REALLY windy morning. Carly wasn't sure what to make of it.

 Play group mornings! Our favorite. Though this week we were the only ones to show up. A little rain didn't scare us away. (See how desperate we are to get out?)

 Play group is held in the backyard of some older ward members, who built a wonderland for their grandkids. Its fabulous.

 Morning time on the front step with Little Red Riding Hood. I always sit on the step, and lately she has been mimicking me. Only so much better. She will walk toward the step, then about 3 feet away she stops, turns around and slowly walks backward until she reaches it. Then she takes a seat right next to me.

Cutest thing on earth.

 This morning we had two firsts: Carly's first bleeding wound. A scrape on her elbow.

And her first temper tantrum in public.

Being the mean mom that I am, I wouldn't let her pull all the greeting cards out of the holders at Target. She was really not happy about it, so she threw herself on the floor face down and kicked her legs and screamed. So what is a good mom to do but whip out her phone and take a picture?

It was hilarious.

I know it won't always be, but today it was.

I said, "Ok, Shmarly, get up now."

And walked away.

And she went quiet and got up and followed me.

What are the chances that will work every time?

I sure love my mornings with my girl.

study buddy.

excuse my absence.

I'm very busy these days.

P.S.

Headed to our first MSU game tomorrow.

Smack dab in the middle of Carly's nap time.

Wish us luck.

some stuff.

Its only Tuesday.

We have already had quite the week.

~

As I pulled into Church on Sunday, a fellow ward member informed me that I was sporting a very flat tire.

Indeed, it was tres flat.

Thanks to a large and not-so-lovely nail.

Did I mention this tire was a whole 9 days old?

Annoying.

So Monday morning Carly and I head to Sams Club nice and early to give us plenty of time before our Visiting Teaching appointment. I packed her breakfast and everything. Good thing, because we were there for a whopping 2 hours. And were 30 minutes late for our appointment.

At least the new new tire was free under the warranty.

Then we visited our elderly visiting teachee . . . where Carly promptly threw dominoes all over the place.

Good times.

{hanging in Sams . . . forever.}

Monday evening for our FHE activity we went shopping for Spartans shirts in preparation for the football game we will be attending this coming Saturday.

We all look much better in green than we did in orange.

This morning Carly and I went to playgroup.

I do enjoy playgroup.

Its nice to socialize.

And its really nice how much it wears Carly out.

I can count on a good Tuesday afternoon nap.

Knock on wood.

I spent today's nearly 3 hour napping folding a million loads of laundry and watching my new TLC fav, Quints by Surprise. I think they are cute. Fingers crossed they don't end up like Jon and Kate.

{barely surviving after another exhausting playgroup.}

This one is just cute.

I would take a picture, then show it to her on the camera.

She found it highly amusing.

Ok, that's it.

But want to see how crafty I am?

Chris keeps teasing me about how keep painting things.

But on Saturday our ward had "Super Saturday".

One of the projects were these photo blocks where you paint them black/brown/white and put pictures on them. Well, we aren't in need of anymore pictures of ourselves around here, so I decided to bring the purple paint I've been using for things in Carly's new room and make family blocks.

Now she has blocks for all of my family and Chris's family.

Its a little way for her to know her grandparents, aunts, and uncles even though they are so far away.

She already loves playing with them and pointing at each face.

That's all.

Bring on Wednesday.

the boys are back in town.

Just in case you aren't following quite as closely as I am,

you should probably know the Penguins reported to training camp today.

It was much too long of a summer.

Regular season games start October 7.

The day after my birthday.

Can you think of a better birthday present?

{other than some bedside tables, that is}

I'm quite excited.

[picture from the Penguins website]

~

We celebrated by wearing our Penguins colors, which was actually not the best idea when Carly promptly got strawberries all over her white shirt.

~

Then we headed to Aldi to go grocery shopping, unaware that Aldi doesn't supply grocery bags, so we had little groceries rolling all over the car.

I think I found them all.

~

Happy Opening Day!

da da.

Chris gets home late on Thursdays.

Carly and I have really long days.

Fun days.

But long days.

~

Today around 7:00 (a bit after he usually gets home), Carly laid back on my stomach, distractedly looked up at the ceiling, and out of the blue said, "da da."

She was missing him.

I was missing him.

~

We sure love our man.

welcome to the c house.

Our living room was clean the other night, so I took pictures.

We are mostly done with our new place, except the kitchen and Carly's room.

Ok, that doesn't sound almost done, but it is.

I have about 50 things I would still like to do.

Good thing we have 4 years here.

~

I'm not going to pretend I'm some super decorator.

I haven't the craftiness, nor the finances.

But we did want to make our place a nice place to be.

So have a look at our living room/office area.

I "pointed out" some things that make this house our home.

Home Sweet Home.

{more to come, if it ever gets finished/clean}

~

P.S. Brought two of these little beauties home from Target for Carly's room. Can't get over how much I adore them. A big giant thank you to my parents for Carly's belated birthday money. And another one to both her grandmas for the recent boxes full of fall clothes.

That means I got so spend some of her birthday money on purple ruffles.

one year and one month.

Well I'm officially retired from Carly's month posts.

It was fun while it lasted,

but those last few months of pictures after she became mobile were nearly impossible.

I am, however, grateful for the record I kept every month.

So I want to continue to do it periodically.

Just a little less official.

~

So, Carly at 13 months?

She just moved up to a big girl carseat. At her 12 month appointment, she was still under 20 lbs so we decided to keep her rear facing until she got there. Yesterday she got to sit front facing for the first time, and she was a big fan.

Common sights in our house?

1. Carly digging in, or sitting in, our new ottoman. We got it to be cute storage for all her toys. Pretty much the best purchase ever. She loves to sit in it with her friends and just dig around (or read books).

2. Carly and the Uno cards. I don't know if its the colors or the fact that she can spread them everywhere (probably the combination of the two) but the girl loves the Uno cards. She knows right where they are in the desk drawer and will go open it and stand on her tip toes to find them. And I don't mind, because they are easy to pick up and she entertains her self for quite a while.

3. Mommy sitting on the porch while Carly brings her all sorts of prizes: rocks, leaves, sticks, bark. She likes to show me all the cool things she finds.

4. Carly chasing squirrels at the park. She looks at them like, "Why are you running away so fast? I just want to say hi!"

5. Carly turning anything and everything into a jungle gym, including mommy and daddy. She is so strong and just maneuvers herself with incredible ability. Of course, we always say she is going to be an athlete.

~

Favorite foods?

Grapes

Mexican

Strawberries

Pasta

Tomatoes

Cheese

Meat sticks (yum!)

Yogurt

Yogurt

Yogurt

~

She is likes to hit my belly like a drum and give me raspberries.

Every morning she peeks down the stairs and says "Da!" looking her daddy.

And when he gets home she is so excited.

They just play and play and he chases her and swings her and she laughs.

It melts my heart.

Such a daddy's girl.

She has taken to screaming when she is hungry.

And in between each bite because she wants more.

Its intense.

She loves bath time, and creates a splash zone that would impress Shamu.

She loves animals.

Especially doggies.

But she loves them from a distance.

She says "hi", "da" [dad], "yeah", "num num" [food], and "daheeee" [doggie].

She is all the way off formula (yay for the bank account!) but is a bottle addict.

She loves Elmo, despite her dad's protest.

When something happens good in a sports game, she can tell and will screech and clap. The other day the Tigers hit a homerun against the Twins and she clapped because she could tell something exciting happened. No, Carly, wrong team! I'm totally brainwashing her to be a sports fan. Just wait until hockey starts.

She loves banging things together to make noise. Like banging rocks together, or toys against the metal chairs at church (which is really loud, by the way). She especially loves the Chinese stress relief balls we have, which clang together and make a ringing noise.

She is social, and loves to walk up to strangers and wave and say "hi!"

She is sweet and loves to give kisses. Mostly to her stuffed animals, but we get some once in a while.

She loves rice krispy treats.

She is still obsessed with bibs.

She pulls bows and clips out of her hair.

She likes snuggles when she is tired (but only when she is tired).

Her favorite books are "I Love You Through and Through" and "Are You My Mother?".

She makes me laugh.

All the time.

Love her.

happy weekend.

We are certainly happy the weekend is here.

We are wiped out.

Chris sat on the couch today and said "Wow, first full week of PhD school wore me out."

Whats funny?

It wasn't even a full week.

And we'll leave you with another funny story, though it may be funny only to me. A while ago I read an interview by Sidney Crosby where he was asked his favorite hockey movie. His response was "Slap Shot", and I've seen several other hockey players agree. I had never heard of the movie, but the other day we saw it on the $5 rack at Target. We joked about getting it, but when I went back today and saw it had gone down to $4, I thought, what the heck, that's about how much it would cost to rent. So I buy it and bring it home. Chris starts reading the summary on the back and then says "Ummmm . . . this movie is rated R."

You see, I have never seen a rated R movie. The Prophets have always warned against unwholesome media, and they have specifically mentioned rated R movies, so I've made it a goal, no matter how good a movie is, to never see a rated R movie unedited. Personal opinion. I couldn't believe Slap Shot was rated R. Seriously, the cover makes it look like a hockey version of Rudy. I didn't even think to look. Rated R? For reals? Chris and I talked about how it probably has nothing in it, that its the 1975 version of rated R. But we don't do exceptions in the C house. So I dug the receipt out of the garbage, and I will be getting our $4 back. Will I look crazy returning a $4 movie? Probably. But Carly is in need of some new socks. I will use the $4 on that.

Happy Weekend.

thursdays.

Carly and I are getting into a routine.

It looks something like this:

1. Get up and shower/get ready before Carly.
2. Carly up, play, breakfast.
3. Get out of the house: store, walk, park, whatever. Just get the girl out.
4. Come home have lunch.
5. Carly naps anywhere from 1-3 hours. Usually about 2. Mommy eats, works on basement, blog surfs, watches DVR entertainment, gets little things done, cleans . . . according to need.
6. Play, which mostly means walk around outside.
7. Daddy comes home/dinner/play/chaos.
8. Carly gets a bath from daddy.
9. Carly goes to bed.
10. Mommy collapses and delays going to bed because she doesn't want to move.

Most days also include some disaster, like a smoke-filled kitchen and a burnt pancake, or a broken bowl and scattered rice cereal. But that is the stuff of this paradise I'm living in.

Carly has been a happy baby lately. She is such a routine girl, its funny. And when she is good, I am good.

~

An another note, last night I headed to campus to help on a research project for one of Chris's colleagues. I was on my way out when Chris said, "You're not allowed to wear those pants anymore." Why? I asked. "Because I can see your underwear through the holes in the back." Whoops. I need new jeans. Thing is, I hate jean shopping, and I really hate jean prices. Carly is in need of practically a whole wardrobe before the real cold shows up, and I just couldn't justify buying myself new clothes.

So, a friend from the ward tells me about a children's consignment store that is great, but its on the other side of the city. So to "get out" today, Carly and I packed up and headed there. Turns out its a fabulously disorganized place with SO much stuff. I got Carly 2 light coats, skirt, dress, 2 pairs of pants, and a shirt for $13. And it was all Baby Gap or Children's Place, and all in great condition. Not too shabby.

Anyway, on the way back I noticed a Goodwill. Did you know I'm a sucker for Goodwill? I mostly love their home decor prizes (I'll have to do a whole post on what I've gotten in that department) but I've found some great stuff there in terms of baby clothes. Is that ghetto? Should I be embarrassed? Well, I'm not. We live on a very tight budget, and everything is washable, right? Anywho . . . I pull into the parking lot and, oh my golly, this is the nicest looking Goodwill I've ever seen. They even call it "Goodwill Emporium". Its huge, and as I scan the racks, I see all sorts of nice stuff in great condition. I head back to the children's section but on my way I see "Ladies Jeans $4.69". Oh man that's right in my price range! Long story short: I got two pairs of brand name jeans in perfect condition for $10. I even tried them on in the Goodwill dressing room while Carly played with my shoes on the floor. Is that classy or what? Booyah.

{yes, this is the only picture you get today}

Anyway, the reason this post is titled "thursdays" is because I don't like Thursdays.

Chris has 14 hour days on Thursdays.

And we miss him.

But today was a good day.

And for that I'm grateful. 

laborless weekend.

We had an enjoyable Labor Day weekend which, of course, included no labor whatsoever.

Its nice to have that little day off right as school gets started.

~

Friday night we drove around looking for something to do. Thanks to rain and no parking due to a football game the next day, we mostly just drove. We went downtown and saw the Capital (which I would like to visit again) and drove around campus a bit. Then we headed home and called it a night (exciting, right?).

~

Saturday morning we got up and headed to a little local Farmer's Market.

We do enjoy a nice Farmer's Market.

This one even included Southern-style BBQ (ironically), so we couldn't help but enjoy some pulled pork.

It was like butta.

Mmmmm.

We headed home with fresh corn-on-the-cob and homemade pumpkin butter.

The remainder of the day consisted of watching the Spartans, Twins, and Cougars win.

We were invited to watch the BYU game at a fellow Alumnus's house, which was fun, and the fact that they have a TV larger than our 20 incher was a bonus too.

~

Sunday was quite the little shock as Chris received a phone call from the Stake shortly before Church.

On our 3rd Sunday in this ward, he was called as the Executive Secretary.

I always knew that shiny spirit of his would get us into trouble.

We spent the remainder of the day in a slight stupor,

but he will do so great and we know we will be blessed for his willingness to serve.

And I still get Saturdays with him (knock on wood).

We did enjoy a game night at our Bishop's house that night, so life keeps going.

~

Monday we had a lazy morning.

We headed to Target to find Carly a jacket since she doesn't actually own any Fall/Winter clothes and it has been a bit chilly lately. We settled on a cute green one for the Spartans (though, Mom, it totally reminds me of Bomber green).

We had a lunch BBQ with ward friends, followed by dinner with school friends.

{beautiful Michigan}

It was a good weekend.

Chris went back to school today. All his classes look great. It will be a good, albeit insane, semester.

Carly and I attended our first ever Playgroup.

Carly just stood and stared at the children in awe.

She will catch on to the playing eventually.

I think.

~

That's it.

xoxo.

~

P.S. We are reaching bib records daily.

I think we got to 6.

Enjoy some evidence:

the search is on.

Now that most of the boxes are unpacked (or put in the basement to be unpacked . . . someday), I've begun the search for the perfect park. I wish I could have brought our Knoxville park with us, because it was my fav. The huge paved walking trail made all the difference. But I might have to settle here. So I looked up "parks" in google maps . . . and Carly, 2 bibs, the superbib, and I all headed over there this morning. It was brisk and windy, and it turned out the "park" was really a bunch of soccer fields. Whoops. But luckily, I brought Carly's little soccer ball and we decided to enjoy our time there anyway.

Beautiful day in Michigan.

Goooooal!

I guess I'll have to be more specific.

Next time I'll type in "public parks" maybe?

did i mention she is wild?

When the Wild Thing wanted to play outside today, I took her out on our front step to show her it was raining so it wouldn't be fun to play outside.

She disagreed.

She belongs in the jungle, I think.

~

{Oh, and don't mind the multiple bibs. The more bibs the better for this girl. She finds them and brings them to me to put them on her. She had 4 on the other day . . . I had to draw the line because she looked like she was wearing a neck brace.}