Happy Anniversary!

5 Years down and many more to come!

Another singing video

This video just captures Molly in so many ways. She loves to sing and dance and what may seem like a random head stand in the middle of the song is pretty common in our house.

Good Ship lollipop

I have had a really hard time getting this video from Halloween up, but I finally got it.

Grana made the adorable Shirley Temple dress for Molly. I LOVE the costumes she makes. 

Warning: This is pretty much a video for Grand Parents.

The Proposal

As I posted before, our five year anniversary is coming up so I am trying to write down our courtship and engagement before I forget and it's too late!

Nathan took me to the gardens at BYU and as we walked up the switch backs he would stop, pull out a rose and tell me how the color of that particular rose pertained to our relationship. For example, one of the roses was yellow which stands for friendship he told me I was his best friend. It was a very thought out, sweet way to propose. It all seemed so surreal. I loved it!

Back at my apartment with all of my roses.

Because we were dating long distance and we had already decided to get married, I knew when he was proposing and later that day we went and took our engagement pictures. I know, weird.

Autumn

Lately we have spent a lot of time talking about trees as they have been changing colors. Molly has been concerned about the trees losing there leaves so I did my best to explain to her what is going on. Now she is fascinated with the changing colors and loves seeing the difference every day. So today I decided we should go down to a park near our house that has lots of trees and leaves for her to see.

We took a walk and talked about the leaves and acorns, but her attention quickly changed to the swings at the park.

Swinging is a big deal in our house. When we go to the park we spend the majority of the time on the swings. She has been learning to pump so she could do it all by herself. She has had a few moments of getting it, but about a month ago it just all sank in. Now she is swing independent. HOORAY!!!!

She saw the beam and said it was kind of like the beam at gymnastics. She never passes up a time to practice gymnastics!

I Can't Stop Sewing!!!!

On Saturday I decided I was going to make a quilt. Christie had taught me how to bind a quilt while she was here, so I wanted to try it out before I forgot how to do it.

I know it is a simple quilt, but I was really excited to finish it.
The next day I made a little messenger bag for a girl in our ward. (No pictures, sorry. I forgot to take one before I gave it to her.)

That was supposed to be all of my projects, but I had enough material left over from the quilt to make Molly a skirt.

I searched everywhere for a tutorial for the skirt in my head, but I couldn't find one. I knew I could probably buy a pattern, but I didn't want to spend money.

So, here it is...my first project without a tutorial.

I made a few mistakes like miscalculating the ruffle that originally was 3 inches longer, but after some picking, cutting and more sewing, it came out all right.

Flash Back Friday

Five years ago on general conference weekend I flew out to Washington to visit Nathan. It was that weekend we decided we wanted to get married.

 BEST. DECISION. EVER.

 Outside of the Portland temple.

After being teased by Nathan's siblings that we needed to concentrate on conference, we sent this picture to his family showing them what we did during conference.

We didn't get engaged for another month, but it was a pretty great weekend.

I know, I know...it's about time!

I have a million reasons why I have not updated lately. We have had visitors and then some more visitors and then we went and babysat our Bishop's kids for two weeks.  

The real reason is that I HATE my computer. it has seen better days and it takes forever to do anything on it.

With that said, here are some updates! We are happy and doing well. Sorry for the delay!

SM

Clark and Chrisitie's visit

Clark, Christie, Hannah, Grace, Peter and Brooke came next to visit our house. We played a lot of games and had a great time. The moment those kids walked in to the door Molly attacked them. I was really happy to see how much she loves her cousins. She definatley plays differently with them then her friends.

Brooke was nice enough to let Molly hold her when she woke up from a nap.

Molly and I joined C & C for a trip to Nauvoo. We had an amazing time. I had been their when I was a little girl, but I really loved learning about the early saints and the sacrifices they had to make.

These kids were so good with Molly. She loved having her cousins with her

We got to play lots of pioneer games and Molly spent a lot of time playing in this little cabin.

One of the best parts of the whole visit for Molly was having sleep overs in her room. (btw: I did not paint those walls. There were little boys that lived here before us!)

We love our nieces and Nephews and we were so happy they came to visit. They are an amazing family.

Baby Emma

While Grana and Tibu were here, my dear friend Melanie had her little girl. Baby Emma has a great birth story that you might want to read! Molly LOVES babies and was so excited when Melanie let her hold Emma!

Emma's Story

Grana and Tibu come for a visit!

We loved having Grana and Tibu come visit us. Molly really enjoyed having two people that just wanted to play with her.

It's almost a tradition that we throw rocks with Grana and Tibu.  Grana, Sarah and Molly found a great little stream to throw rocks in, so we had to come back again with Tibu then next day.

We got to go to Fair Oaks farm and the adults had a great time. Molly was in a "special" mood that started because she was afraid of having the little paper bracelet put on her wrist. She never really recovered, but we had a few happy moments!

Here are a few of those moments.

There were a lot of fun things to do there and Molly really loved seeing a baby calf being born.

Molly really misses them. We are so glad they were able to come visit.

Goats

My (Nathan's) parents were in town last week. We did several things while they were here, including visiting the local petting zoo.

At some point while we were looking at the goats Molly sat down on one of the rocks and the goats joined her. The baby goats had a tendency to want to nibble on clothes on hair.

(I know, nice shot of my finger)

Here are some of the goobers left over from the goat chewing on her hair.

Playing in The Rain

Potty Training

Potty training has been a long time coming. Molly is almost 3 and a half and up until Friday if you even tried to get her to sit on a potty she would arch her back and scream like she was being abused. I have been so worried about how to help her get over her fear but on Friday she decided she was ready.

We have offered every bribe in the book including this baby doll that she really wanted. It has been sitting on a shelf for four months. She calls her "baby Claire" and every time I would try and entice her with actually getting to play with the doll she would tell me, "Baby Claire will wait". It was very frustrating, but she made it. She finally earned baby Claire and she is in love with this doll. It hardly leaves her side.

I never thought I would want to shout from the roof tops that my kid can go potty in the toilet, but that is exactly what I wanted to do. I love seeing how proud Molly is of herself that she overcame her fear. It is such a cool feeling as a parent to see your kid progress.

My favorite quote from the whole process was the first day she wore big girl underwear. One of the bribes we had tried was 5 coins. Molly LOVES money. I overheard her say,

"I love underwear on my bum, and money in my hand!"

Puffy, puffy pancakes!

Nathan and Molly have decided it is a Sunday tradition to make German puffy pancakes after church (Molly calls them, "puffy, puffy pancakes"). They both love making them and enjoy eating them even more!

Whenever either one of us is being silly if you look at Molly for her reaction she always shrugs her shoulders and smiles and announces that we are koo koo la crazy!

Event in the Park

Last week we went to a little event in the park (I am not really sure what it was for!). They had pony rides and face painting and a bouncy house and lots of little things for families to do.

Molly was a little hesitant to get on the pony, but ended up really liking it!

She chose to get her hand painted instead of her face.

Molly's New Favorite Activity

Happy Father's Day

This Father's day has been a lot of fun. Molly and I made Nathan pick out all of the meals for the day and we were happy to make them for him. I love Father's day because it always makes me feel so happy to have Nathan in my life. It's no secret how much I love this man, but I love that after four and a half years of marriage, I am still being amazed by him. He is an amazing father and Molly and I are so lucky to have him.

Molly tells me all of the time that Daddy is her, "favorite guy."

He's mine too!

Head Stands

Molly has been learning how to do hand stands and today she learned that the wall is a great help.

Whenever I try and explain how to do something to Molly I always recruit Nathan to show her what I am talking about.