Molly's World

Skipping Skilz

2012-02-05T15:56:00.000-08:00

Art Area

2012-02-03T18:06:00.000-08:00

Here is todays project. This is "Molly's Office" as she calls it. She has been busy cutting paper in to tiny little pieces, drawing and playing with beads. The red square on the wall is a little chalkboard sticker. The other side is an oil drip pan I bought at Walmart and put it up on the wall so Molly can hang her art work there and play with magnets. She loves magnets! The white shelves are full of paper, scissors, pipe cleaners, popsicle sticks, glue, beads crayons, stickers and random stuff she can craft with.

So far it has been a big hit. She loves that it is her own little space and that she can play with it at any time. I love that it is organized and not on my kitchen table. Stay tuned for amazing works of art that will come from this little space. Who are we kidding...stay tuned for lots and lots of little pieces of cut up paper. Thats Molly's specialty!

Time for an update!

2012-01-29T16:45:00.000-08:00

It has been a while since we have posted anything. We have had a lot going on in the past month, but no pictures to show for it.

On New Years eve we moved from West Lafayette to the Indianapolis area for Nathan to start his new job.

We are happy to be staying in Indiana. If you had asked me a few years ago if I would have wanted to stay, my answer would have been an absolute, "NO!", but Indiana has really grown on me and I was really excited to be able to stay here. I am also excited to be close to my friends in West Lafayette. There are some amazing women there that I am glad I can live semi close to.

Molly has been busy trying on every head band she owns, practicing gymnastics, growing taller, singing and running around the house. She really misses her old friends, but she has LOVED moving up to the sunbeams class at church and is making new friends there. She is pretty desperate for playmates. She invited the grocery store clerk to come play at our house and a little girl she met at the mall. She is a fun little girl and I am grateful for her.

More to come. Be patient with us. We will try and get a tour of our house up here soon.

Happy Anniversary!

2011-12-29T00:30:00.000-08:00

5 Years down and many more to come!

Another singing video

2011-11-28T11:42:00.001-08:00

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

2011-11-14T13:35:00.001-08:00

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

2011-11-01T13:18:00.000-07:00

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

2011-10-08T12:41:00.000-07:00

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!!!!

2011-10-06T10:29:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-30T11:17:00.000-07:00

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!

2011-09-23T11:46:00.000-07:00

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!

Clark and Chrisitie's visit

2011-09-23T11:36:00.000-07:00

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

2011-09-23T11:16:00.000-07:00

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!

2011-09-23T11:10:00.000-07:00

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

2011-08-07T19:40:00.000-07:00

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

2011-07-28T13:12:00.000-07:00

Potty Training

2011-07-28T12:53:00.000-07:00

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!

2011-07-28T12:38:00.000-07:00

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

2011-07-18T19:17:00.000-07:00

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

2011-07-05T17:18:00.000-07:00

Happy Father's Day

2011-06-19T15:56:00.000-07:00

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

2011-05-28T16:51:00.001-07:00

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.

Daddy, Daughter Date

2011-05-20T07:06:00.001-07:00

Molly has been waiting anxiously for the semester to end so she could go on a date with her favorite person. She was so excited when we told her it was finally time.

She and Nathan took the bus down to the school and walked around and saw the fountains on campus and just enjoyed spending time together.

I love the relationship that Nathan and Molly have. She loves her Daddy and he is a great Father.

Old video (Raking leaves)

2011-05-11T21:44:00.000-07:00

It isn't cold in Indiana anymore. In fact, today was really quite warm and humid. But back when it was colder, Molly and I (Nathan) had to rake some leaves. Molly loves helping, and enjoys raking leaves :-)

Old videos (SD Park)

2011-05-11T21:19:00.000-07:00

When we were in San Diego there was a park nearby that we would occasionally take Molly to. It wasn't a "kid" park, but we found things to do that Molly found entertaining, including running down hills and walking across wooden beams.

Fun times.

I am growing big like the flowers!

2011-04-22T08:53:00.000-07:00

Molly tells us all the time that she is "growing big like the flowers" and today I looked at her and I am starting to believe her.

But, it's not Easter yet!

2011-04-03T08:33:00.001-07:00

A couple of Sunday's ago Nathan was getting Molly ready for church and she came out in this. I bought this dress last year after Easter on clearance and I have saved it all year long for this Easter.

I loved it so much i didn't make her take it off. Instead it is now an Easter season dress.

p.s. the dress is not even close as shiny as the picture makes it look.

Chicago

2011-04-02T15:31:00.000-07:00

We went to Chicago during spring break a few weeks ago. Chicago is our nearest temple and it is quite a long drive. Usually when we go one person goes in while the other stays out with Molly and then we switch.

This time we decided to priceline a hotel and stay the night. It was so much fun. We decided to teach Molly all the things we loved to do as kids when we stayed at a hotel.

Parents of the year I know.

We also let her get something out of the vending machines and use the ice maker. She loved it!

Outside the temple waiting for Dad!

Place Mats

2011-03-29T17:50:00.000-07:00

A few months ago I saw these place mats at Target and I just loved the material. The problem was they didn't really seem like anything more than something pretty to look at. I didn't think they would hold up to food and washings, so I had to figure out how I could use them for something else.

My first project I just split the seam and stuffed them and sewed them back up.

Waa laa! New couch cushions!

Then I decided to do a makeover on Molly's rocking chair. It used to sit in her room and was a sage green color. She doesn't have space in her room for a chair so it has been in the living room in this house. I have wanted to paint it for a while so it would look better. So today during nap time I found some spray paint and started painting. Then I decided it would tie in better if I made a seat cushion using another place mat. So when Molly woke up we ran to Target grabbed another place mat and a piece of foam and came home and attached the seat.

I know the pictures are hard to see, but I love the way they turned out.

Gymnastics

2011-03-11T05:09:00.000-08:00

Molly just finished a fun little gymnastics class. She loved the class and would just smile the whole time. Something we have learned about Molly is that she does not like it when Nathan and I clap for her or cheer for her. When she started the class I had to leave and not be there or she wouldn't do anything. By the end she let me watch but not say anything. Yesterday was the last class and each child had to do a little routine for all of the parents and then we all clapped and they got a little medal. As soon as she saw the first kid go I could tell she was very nervous, but when her turn came, she did it and she even let me clap for her!

Hooray for Molly!

After class we get to go downstairs and play in the big gym.

Rope swing in to the foam pit

Her favorite thing is the trampoline. No big surprise there. This girl is always jumping!

My Pride, My Pride, My Beautiful Pride!

2011-03-09T19:55:00.000-08:00

In the beginning of February I was getting the mail and I slipped on the ice and fell pretty hard. I laid on the ground for a while trying to assess my injuries feeling very concerned for my overly abused leg. I made it inside and made a doctors appointment for my leg to have all of the hardware in my leg checked out ( I have broken screws in my leg before!). The next morning I told Nathan that my leg actually felt okay and my wrist was bothering me more than anything. I still went to the doctors appointment and as anticipated, the leg was totally fine. Just a good scrape and bruise.

Sorry this is a long story, but you have to understand why my pride has been so damaged.

For the past 4 weeks Nathan has been telling me to go get my wrist checked out. He thought it was broken. I kept saying, "No, it's just a little sprain". Well, my "little sprain" has been getting, well, not any better, so I made an appointment to get it checked out.

The doctor took some x-rays and then showed me not one broken bone but two! I started laughing and he asked me why. I said, "I just lost a bet."

Turns out Nathan was right.

I have been laughing all day over the fact that I am more bothered that I was wrong than I am that I now have a cast on my arm.

Birthday party part 2

2011-02-27T12:58:00.000-08:00

Here are a few more pictures from her party.

Here is the food table. I love how the sandwiches turned out, but my favorite was the cheese plate.

Gotta love cookie cutters!

Johnny modeling his tool belt and shovel.

I love this picture because it is really captures Molly to me. She does not like to be the center of attention at all. When she gets nervous she pulls on her lip like this. I love that Amy captured that in this photo.

Who needs games when you have a good rug to play under.

Molly with her flower shaped "Peanut butter bread" (She doesn't like jelly so that is what she calls it.).

Working hard on the garden.

The Birthday Party

2011-02-26T17:37:00.000-08:00

In December I asked Molly if she wanted to have a birthday party and she surprised me with, "I want a flower party". So we have been planning this flower party and after a lot of sewing and paper cutting, the party was pulled off!

Delivering invitations.

We played a game where each child had 10 flowers that they needed to find around the house. They all had there own color and when they brought them back we made a garden on the wall. This is before the game.

I made chocolate flowers for the cupcakes, but I was afraid the boys wouldn't like pink cupcakes (I have a nephew who would not touch a pink cupcake if you paid him too!) so I made dirt cupcakes to make a full garden.

Now this, this is my favorite part. I spent a LOT of time sewing this little number but as soon as she put it on, it felt so worth every second. 90 Yards of ruffled nylon chiffon later I had a skirt.

Yeah, this skirt gets a few extra pictures!

Here are all of the guests at the end of the party. You can see the finished garden behind them.I made a Tutu for each girl and a tool belt for the boys.

As everyone was leaving, Molly kept tackling her friend Johnny.

After several attempts to get her off of him, Nathan finally took care of things!

We all had a great time. There will be more pictures soon. My sweet friend Amy took lots of good pictures for me so I could cook and keep the party going.

Stay tuned...or tune out if you are getting bored, but I haven't even showed you the food. Flower shaped PB&J's for the kids and sliders for the adults with flower shaped cheese. Ridiculous, I know!

Having fun!

2011-02-17T12:54:00.000-08:00

For Valentines day we had a play group and then a party. We were going to decorate cookies that day, but Mommy had enough so we decided to do it the next day. Grana sent some candy to decorate with and we discovered Molly really likes red hots.

Today we received a package in the mail for Molly's upcoming birthday. While she was sleeping I played with her new toy, and then hid it before she woke up but the box was still there. She has been playing non-stop with this box and packing peanuts.

She likes to close the box on herself. I loved boxes as a kid. I think all kids love boxes.

Fun, fun , fun!

How do I get so behind?

2011-02-17T12:47:00.000-08:00

I get so behind on blogging and then I have even less of a desire to blog, so I decided to just put the pictures on and go from there!

OUr "BIG, HUGE, DEATHLY SNOWSTORM" was really not that big of a deal We did get some good snow and ice, but we were prepared to be stuck in the house for a long time. Tunrs out it was more of a nuisance than fun. (We like storms at our house!)

Molly was excited to go out and play though!

With all of the cold weather, the trampoline has been getting a lot of use!

Oue friend Margaret came to visit us and we had such a great time with her. Molly LOVES her and was so sad when she left. I love her too, so I was so glad she was able to come for a visit. Hurry back Margaret!

It starts...

2011-01-31T14:45:00.000-08:00

The weather people have been forecasting a big storm where we're at. It started snowing tonight, and is supposed to snow harder tomorrow and Wednesday. We may even get a little bit of an ice storm. We'll see what actually happens. Here's what it looked like a few minutes ago.

Our newest pictures

2011-01-25T18:52:00.000-08:00

Molly was really sick last week, hence the reason she is in pajamas in these pictures, but I thought I would post what we had!

She had not really been eating and she was waking up a million times during the night (she had a bad ear infection). One night she asked for Peanut butter bread. So we gave it to her. She and Nathan had Peanut butter sandwiches at 1 o'clock in the morning.

Nathan and Molly made me a cake for my birthday. Molly calls the "Happy Birthday" song, "Happy the Birthday".

As a side note, she also calls tissues, "bless you's".

Love it!

Bye, Bye Beep Beep!

2011-01-22T17:33:00.000-08:00

I have a lot of blogging to catch up on and now that we have the house mostly un-packed I really should catch up, but right now I have to blog about this...even though it is out of order.

Tonight we had a "Bye, Bye Binky" party for Molly. It's been a long time coming, but I have dreaded this day. She loves the binky ( she refers to it as a beep beep) and while people look at her and see this almost three year old with a pacifier, all I see is my baby. Somehow I feel like taking it away from her is taking my baby from me.

A while back we took the binky down to nap and bed time but the time has come to take it from her.

We talked this party up for a while and she has been so excited. She picked out a cake and we made it together and then we had ourselves a party.

I found a bag of Binky's while I was unpacking and it was full of every kind of pacifier known to man. I did everything I could to get this kid to take a pacifier when she was born.

So we put some of them on the cake and made up a song about what a big girl she is and how she doesn't need a binky anymore.

Her last little suck.

And then we threw them away. I wanted her to see they were going in the garbage and I wanted her to do it by her own choice. Which she was happy to do. I on the other hand bawled like a little baby. I did not expect these emotions to come out. I don't want her to have a binky, I don't, but it was just harder than I thought it would be.

Nathan, Molly and I danced and played and had a great time together.

About an hour before bed she cried and said, "why did we throw my beep beep's away?" I picked her up and told her she was a big girl and she didn't need them anymore. She was fine with that. Then bed time came and I was nervous to put her to bed.

She went to bed just fine. No crying. Nothing.

A half hour later she walked out of her room. Trying so hard not to cry and said,

"I am not a big girl"

That was it.

For day one.

Happy Birthday Sarah!

2011-01-15T07:38:00.000-08:00

Molly and I are so blessed to have such a wonderful mother and wife in our lives. Sarah is extraordinary: she is beautiful, patient, kind, loving, and most amazingly puts up with Molly and I day in and day out. Molly and I are very lucky!

Happy birthday Sarah! We love you lots!

A few fun quotes!

2010-12-13T17:06:00.000-08:00

Molly loves to sing...a lot. She sings all day long.

She loves to sing, "I am a child of God" but instead of singing "has given me an earthly home" she sings, "has given me a dirty home"

Now today she started singing, 'Follow the Prophet, follow the prophet, follow the prophet, don't say a word."

Christmas Tree

2010-12-05T08:32:00.000-08:00

While we were in Northern California we got to go help pick out a tree and decorate it.

Ellie and Molly ready to go!

We let the girls decorate the tree and Ellie was so good about hanging ornaments in lots of different places.

Molly on the other hand put all of the ornaments on the same branch.

She was so proud of herself!

Nathan is hanging this cluster of tiny apples that his mom keeps to remind her of the time...

...he put all of the apples on the same branch!

I guess the apple really doesn't fall far from the tree!

Thanksgiving

2010-12-04T15:43:00.000-08:00

For Thanksgiving day we were in Northern California with Nathan's parents and sister and brother in law. We actually went out to a restaurant and then back home for pie and cake. It was a really relaxing day and we had a great time.

Molly got in lots of Tibu time including dancing to Christmas music.

Can you tell by her face how much she loves him? I mean she really, really loves him!

Molly and Ellie-Jane playing in the boxes

Tibu recently went on a scuba diving trip and decided to get the girls a coral reef toy.

It's an adorable toy with six stuffed sea creatures to swim through the reef.

As always she was read to a lot by Tibu and Grana. She's a lucky little girl.

Legoland

2010-12-03T15:21:00.000-08:00

The local radio station was offering tickets to Legoland in exchange for toys, so we took advantage of their offer. Everitt, Belinda, Frances and Madeline all came down to go with us.

It was pouring rain the day we decided to go, but we went anyway.

We were not sure of the height requirement on this ride so Nathan stood in line in case a kid needed him to go on with them. Madeline went with Everitt and Frances and Liam were allowed to go together so Nathan went by himself. He really made the best of this ride meant for little kids!

At one point is was raining so hard we all sought cover, but not Madeline. She was out there playing in the water. She was soaked, but it was very entertaining watching her.

Molly really wanted to go on this ride which was not very scary at all. She had already been on a roller coaster.

Now before you start feeling bad for her because her parents made her go on a scary ride she didn't want to go on, you must know that these crocodile tears were because she didn't want to put on the seat belt.

She zonked out.

It was a lot of fun even with all of the rain. We had a great time spending the day with Everitt and Belinda and their kids. It happened to be Everitt's birthday that same day. I couldn't be happier to have a brother like Everitt. He is an amazing man and I am lucky to have him in my life!

When the cousins get a hold of you!

2010-11-15T13:41:00.000-08:00

Molly had a whole team that contributed to this look!

A Better Look

2010-11-01T15:27:00.001-07:00

Here is a little better look at Molly's costume. This is a couple days before Halloween when her costume arrived in the mail. Molly's Grana did a great job making this costume.

She was testing out the twirl factor!

Happy Halloween!

2010-10-31T11:21:00.000-07:00

Dorothy and Toto on there way to trunk or treat!

Dorothy was a little shy throughout the night. I think it might have been a little overwhelming for her, but we had a good time!

Habitots

2010-10-29T13:57:00.000-07:00

We went to this great toddler museum in Berkeley. Molly spent the majority of her time at this "car wash". She really loved it. She was allowed to get water all over herself and the floor and no one told her to be careful!

Molly and Ellie in the space shuttle with a ton of buttons they were encouraged to push! What a breath of fresh air to be allowed to push everything!

This was my favorite part. They could just paint all over this wall. They could mix colors and get dirty. The best part was the paint really did come off easily!

Good Friends!

2010-10-28T13:50:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite things about this trip was seeing Ellie and Molly together. They really enjoyed eachother and had a good time.

They held hands like this until their arms went numb!

They kept hugging each other so much that they would topple over. Even when they would fall, they would just laugh and get up and do it again!

Off to the farm with Tibu!

2010-10-27T13:40:00.000-07:00

Tibu took Molly and Ellie-Jane to a farm and the girls had a blast. They were able to run and touch animals and pick corn and just have fun!

Molly REALLY wanted this hen. These poor chickens would hide behind all the adults legs. You could tell they were used to kids chasing them.

Sitting in a pile of corn husks!

Camy and Macy's Birthday

2010-10-26T13:32:00.000-07:00

We went to Northern California for another visit and while we were there we got to celebrate Camy and Macy's second birthday. On the actual day they came over for cake that Aunt Kate made. (or Aunt Cake as Molly calls her!)

Then a few days later we were invited over for a little party.

Edna made cute butterfly cakes and these darling goodie bags.

This was the best picture we got of all four cousins together.

Camy and Macy are SO sweet. It was so much fun to be there and get to know these little girls better!

M.O.L. and another L. Y.

2010-10-08T11:49:00.000-07:00

Just Like Daddy!

2010-10-01T10:22:00.000-07:00

Molly LOVES her Dad. If he does something, she does it too.

He squatted so he could be down at her level and then she had to squat just like him. The cute thing about them sharing these chips is that she saved them all day because she wanted Daddy to have some. She told me they were Daddy's favorite and then asked me to hold them for Daddy. She asked me several times during the day if I still had them. As soon as he got home from work she asked for them and gave them to him.

She asked Daddy to do push ups with her last night. She is actually starting to get the hang of it. I love that she loves him so much!

Benjamin's Baptism

2010-09-24T13:41:00.000-07:00

Benjie was baptized a few weeks ago and it was awesome to be there. It was sweet to see my brother baptize his oldest son and to see how ready Benjie was for his big day!

We love Ben and Rachel and their boys and we are so happy that Benjie decided to be baptized! Congratulations Benjie!

Nice View!

2010-09-22T15:07:00.000-07:00

This is what we get to look at every time we go anywhere. Nice view huh!?!

Molly Singing to Daddy

2010-09-09T07:50:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Nathan!!!

2010-09-07T11:22:00.001-07:00

It's this guy's birthday again!

Oh how I love him!

Shoe Envy!

2010-08-30T16:36:00.000-07:00

This is not a post about Molly, (shocker I know) but I need an outlet for my rantings and ravings! You see, I am a shoe person. I love shoes. I love high heeled, girly, flirty, cute shoes. But, I can't wear them so, I get shoe envy.

If I saw you in this little grey number I would stare.

Red patent heels would definately cause me to come up and pay you a compliment!

And if I was in need of something a little more conservative, these would be the source of my envying!

So when you catch me looking at your shoes, take it as a compliment and let me live a little through you.

And when you need an excuse to go buy some really great shoes, you just blame it on me. You are doing me a favor!

Utah

2010-08-26T17:45:00.000-07:00

Ben and Rachel moved to Utah so I rode along with Rachel and the boys and spent the week with them. Christie went up to visit some of her family and then we all met up on Thursday and spent the weekend together. Our cousin was married on that Saturday and this is the cousins outside of the temple.

Now we are back in San Diego where we will be staying until December. Nathan's internship was extended, so here we are.

Things have been busy as we had to move to a different apartment, but eventually I will catch up on blogging!

Photos by Aunt Kate

2010-07-31T17:12:00.000-07:00

We had a chance to go up to Northern California and visit with family. We had such a great time and on top of everything Aunt Kate did a photo shoot for Molly and Ellie.

This picture was to remember Molly's uncle Andrew who is serving our country in Iraq right now.

These girls were two peas in a pod. They are both going through the "mine" stage right now so we were all happy to see them get along so well. Ellie is such a cool little girl. It was fun to get to know her better. I wish I could capture her little personality and share it with all of you. She is a total crack up.

More Pictures

2010-07-31T17:10:00.000-07:00

Grana and Tibu

2010-07-03T19:09:00.000-07:00

Tibu and Grana were here visiting us for the past few days and we had such a good time. Molly loves her Grana and Tibu. She spent a lot of time playing with the bubbles they brought and bossing them around. We played at the park, went to the beach, we went swimming and sang a lot of songs.

We are sad to see them go. It was amazing to watch Molly get so attatched to them.

American Girl

2010-06-29T14:53:00.000-07:00

Belinda called me a few weeks ago and asked if I wanted to go with them to the American Girl store for lunch. I thought about it for less than a half a second and then said, "yes!". You see, I LOVE American Girl dolls. I love them. So going to the store and having a daughter to blame it on was a dream come true for me.

Frances with her doll Felicity

Waiting to go in for lunch

I just loved that the fruit was cut in shapes!

They let Madeline and Molly borrow dolls for the lunch.

Me and Molly

Dessert!

It was so much fun to be there. I know Molly is a little too young for all of this, but I couldnt turn down a chance to go.

I realize that I am not a little girl, but I sure felt like one!

Clarification

2010-06-28T11:02:00.000-07:00

A few of you have asked what we are doing in California and I realized we never really clarified why we are here. Nathan is doing an intership here in San Diego for the summer and we head back to Indiana in August. We are having a great time.

Sarahs family all got together for a BBQ the other day because Deric and Muria and their kids headed out to New Hampshire for the summer. All the cousins were together so we tried to grab a picture. This is all but Brooke, who was sleeping.

Ben and Rachel are moving to Utah in August so getting everyone together is going to be a lot harder. These kids grew up together and really love eachother.

Beaches, Flour and Family!

2010-06-17T13:51:00.000-07:00

Deric and Muria and the kids came down for a visit and we had a great time with them.

You will probably notice Molly's theme of picking one person and never leaving them alone. This time she picked Jessica. It was so sweet to see them together. Jessica was great with her.

Then we played a game with flour. Loser has to get the quarter out with their nose.

No picture of Nathan because he is the only one who didnt have to do it. Deric actually lost trying to set Nathan up to lose.

Monday we went to the beach and Molly proved she is still our little beach baby!

She convinced Deric to go in the water with her. She was so cold after a while, but just couldn't give up. The waves were starting to get so strong that they would pull her legs out from under her.

We all had a great visit. It is fun to have family so close by.

Seals!

2010-06-13T18:09:00.000-07:00

We went to this beach the other day and watched the seals. Molly loved it. It was fun to see so many of them so close up.

A street sign in San Diego

2010-06-13T17:48:00.001-07:00

Benjamin

2010-06-10T13:23:00.000-07:00

Molly really...

really...
really...

loves Benjamin.

Benjie is SO patient with her as she chases him and hugs him non-stop!

Molly's tower

2010-06-10T13:18:00.000-07:00

Lately Molly has been stacking the paper towels up in a stack 4 rolls high. A few days ago she decided that 4 was getting boring. I turned around and she was on a chair and so proud of herself for adding that fifth roll!

Memorial Day

2010-06-04T08:50:00.000-07:00

We stayed with Ben and Rachel and their boys for memorial day. Molly quickly learned that Rachel would do anything for her. At one point she asked me for something and I said, "No" and she said, "where's Rachel?"

Rachel, Grant, Noah and Molly.

Visiting the old place

2010-06-02T21:24:00.000-07:00

Back in the day, my (Nathan's) family lived in southern California. Over Memorial Day weekend we went to visit Sarah's family, and on the way up we stopped at my family's old house for a few minutes. We lived there from when I was 5 until I was 8. Here's a picture of me and my little brother lookin' good during one of those first-day-of-school pictures in front of the main door of our house in SoCal. You can tell by my shorts+socks combo that it was the 80's:

Here's a picture of Molly and me in front of the house now. As you can see, the new owner has changed out the front door.

The owners let us go in the backyard for a little while. On a random note (as if this posting isn't random enough already), when I was little I stepped on a bee in the spot where we're standing in this picture. The house has changed quite a bit since we lived there, but it still has a familiar feeling. It was fun to go back for a few minutes.

Sea World

2010-06-02T17:42:00.000-07:00

We got passes to Sea World last week and we have already been 4 times! We all went together the first time and we were only there for about 1/2 an hour. Then Clark, Christie, Hannah, Grace, Peter and Brooke came down and we all went on Friday (Nathan met us after work) and Saturday. We love Sea World, so Molly and Sarah went again today!

Molly loves the rides. The faster the better!

Here we are at Cirque de la mer. Molly thought the acrobats were monkeys and she kept asking if we could go back and see the monkeys!

Molly, Peter, Grace, and Hannah watching the whales.

Nathan and Molly after the Sea Lions show. We were soaked because Hannah, Grace, Nathan and Sarah all went on the return to Atlantis ride and Hannah had us sit in the front where you get the most wet.

We had such a good time every time we went, but we had such a great time with Clark and Christie and the kids.

California Here we come!

2010-05-09T14:20:00.001-07:00

Stay tuned for our adventures from San Diego!

I'm blogging to avoid packing!

2010-05-04T09:27:00.000-07:00

I should be cleaning and packing, but I am tired of doing that so I decided to blog. Nathan has been so busy with school lately, and Molly really misses him. Every morning she asks me to leave and only wants her daddy. Nathan is so good about spending what time he does have with her. The other morning we were getting ready to go drop him off at school and I walked in to the room and saw this. She knows exactly how to get her daddy to stay for just a few more minutes. Last week after two all nighters in a row he came home and slept for two hours. He had to be back at school so I went in to wake him up and Molly said. "I want daddy to play with me" and sure enough he went in to go play for a couple of minutes. He is a pretty amazing daddy. She is a very persuasive little girl!

The Vacuum Cleaner

2010-05-02T07:23:00.000-07:00

Molly's afraid of weird things. She's not afraid of snakes and spiders, nor being thrown up in the air, or climbing on things and falling on her head. But she is afraid of the vacuum cleaner. What's particulary weird about this is that she loves the vacuum cleaner and hates it all at the same time.

Whenever we're vacuuming Molly insists on holding our hand, as seen below. She's terrified of the thing. And yet, she often asks if we can vacuum.

Nutrition Facts!

2010-04-03T16:41:00.000-07:00

We went out for ice cream tonight and had a laugh when we read the nutrition facts.

It was really good!

Capes and Tu Tu's

2010-04-02T17:15:00.000-07:00

I have a friend whose kids LOVE costumes and they are often dressed up as a dog, or in a swimsuit or whatever they feel like. My nephew dressed as a fireman every day for years. He even set out his boots with his pants pooled around the bottom so if there was an "emergency" in the middle of the night he could be ready to jump in his boots and pull up his pants and go.

Molly is not like my nephew or my friends kids. She is very resistant to trying things on. (remember the skirt I made her? It took her 2 weeks to agree to try it on!)

sure you have seen her in her halloween costumes, but that is usually the exception.

I showed you all a Tu Tu I had made last fall and I was so excited because Molly put it on and ran around the house. Well, that was the last time she ever tried it on until today.

She asked to put her Tu Tu on and her cape today. We spent most of the morning dressed like this. I was so excited!

Another sewing project

2010-03-31T13:18:00.000-07:00

When Jana was in town she was gracious enough to give me a sewing lesson. Sewing has become kind of an obsession for me lately. I love it, and I only wish I had known that I would love it this much because I would have picked it up a long time ago!

This is the dress we made.

Do you recognize the signature Molly dance move in the last picture?!?

Oh Grana!!!!!

2010-03-24T11:20:00.000-07:00

Molly is a real routine kid. When she does something once, she expects to do it again and again. When Grana came out to visit a few weeks ago she taught Molly how to march and they read a lot of books.

So everyday Grana was here, Molly wanted to march. So they marched!

And after reading books with Grana in the rocking chair with the blanket on, every time Grana offered to read to Molly, she would go get her blanket and climb in to the rocking chair.

The favorite book was
"Do you see a Mouse?"

I love this picture because youcan see Molly's hands turned up asking, "Where's the mouse?"

We loved having Grana here and we have done a lot of marching since she left!

Mommy...I'm bored!

2010-03-24T11:06:00.000-07:00

I guess Molly got a little bored while I was cleaning the other day. I turned around and this is what I found. She had rolled up the carpet and was crawling through it.

Last, but not least

2010-03-21T15:27:00.001-07:00

Eleven years ago today I had my mission farewell.Going on a mission was a great thing for me. I learned a lot and I pull from those experiences often. I miss Croatia, and I am grateful that I was able to meet the people I met and learn the things I learned.

I was also grateful that I was able to be at two of my best friends' weddings and two of my brothers' weddings. Both couples had their weddings planned for later in the year. I was so excited when they told me they had moved them up. This picture is from my open house with the new additions to the family!

It was a crazy weekend to say the least!

We are still talking about 11 years ago!

2010-03-20T11:47:00.000-07:00

The next day (11 years ago, today) My other best friend Belinda married my brother Everitt. This is a picture form their wedding of me and Betsy. I dont have any pictures of them scanned in to my computer, so this is from the day, and below is a picture of them from my wedding.

Belinda and I share a lot of great memories together. Two of my best friends becoming my sisters-in-law in one weekend...pretty awesome!

but wait, we are not done with our flashback. Come back tomorrow to see what happened the next day!

11 years ago

2010-03-19T20:30:00.000-07:00

Eleven years ago today my brother Ben married my best friend Rachel. She was my first sister-in-law and he couldnt have picked a better wife!

Check back tomorrow to see where I go with this theme!

Molly's 2nd birthday

2010-02-28T07:17:00.000-08:00

Molly turned two today! Her grandparents got her a little trampoline, and she LOVES it.

We got her some balloons for her birthday. She likes them, but not nearly as much as the trampoline :-)

Getting Crafty

2010-02-13T07:23:00.001-08:00

I found this blog a while back and it has really inspired me to get crafty. I have never really felt like I was able to do crafts, but now I have done so many different projects. Here is one of my latest, a skirt and embellished sweatshirt for Molly.

Ummmm......

2010-02-03T16:54:00.000-08:00

Today in the grocery store as we were passing the alcohol section, Molly pointed to a big statue of Jack Morgan and said, "Jesus!"

No, Molly, that is most definitely not Jesus.

MIA

2010-02-02T08:45:00.001-08:00

We are still alive! It has been a while since we have posted, but Molly came down with a high fever for no reason and then Sarah had surgery to remove a bunch of kidney stones (nine), and then we had to figure out what was going on with Molly when the fever was still there ten days later, and to finish with a bang, we all came down with a really bad cold or something that knocked us all off our feet. The good news is we are all on the mend. They didnt find out why she had a fever for so long, but she is better and back to herself now. Sarah is stone free, and Nathan is getting some sanity back with his girls feeling better. Now he just needs to kick his cold. Thankfully Sarah's mom came out and took care of us all. She stayed with Molly during the surgery and we were so grateful she was here becasue Sarah ended up staying the night in the hospital due to complications and she fought them the whole way because she didn't want to leave Molly for a whole night. She gave in because the nurse pointed out she was probably having more fun with Grammie anyway.Since pictures of sickness and misery are not fun to look at, we decided to post a picture of what Molly did most of our time in So. Cal. over New Years. Hannah got the sweetest dog and She and Molly and Peter had a great time together! ( As a side note, they are not locked in this cage. They put themselves in there and we found them this way.)

Throwing Rocks with the Cousins

2010-01-10T19:12:00.001-08:00

When Molly went to Tibu and Grana's (Nathan's parent) house this last September, she and Tibu threw a lot of rocks in the pool. After all the rocks were thrown in the pool, Tibu would get in the water and fetch all of the rocks. They did this on several instances. We don't know what Molly found so intriguing about throwing rocks, but she loved it. It was a big hit.

When we went to her grandparent's home in December for Christmas, the pool water was too cold to get in and retrieve rocks. So Grana had the idea of filling a large bucket with water and placing it below a ledge by the pool. This allowed the grandkids to throw rocks into the water and make splashes, and since the bucket is shallow the rock-retrieval process was much easier.

Molly LOVED throwing rocks into this goofy bucket. She often asked several times a day to be taken outside to throw rocks. In fact, shortly after opening Christmas presents she wanted to go outside and throw rocks. I guess we know what to get her next year...

We caught some of this on video. The video is a little long, but you can see pretty quickly how much Molly loved tossing the rocks in the bucket. Molly is the hyper-active one on the right in jeans and an orange top. Ellie-Jane (one of Molly's cousins) is on the left. Camy and Macy (twin cousins) make an appearance as well with their parents. As you can likely guess, Tibu's in the red shirt on the right supplying them with rocks and egging them on :-)

Snow in Indiana

2010-01-10T17:31:00.000-08:00

We recently had a winter storm here in Indiana and took advantage of the opportunity to go stomp in fresh snow. When we lived in Washington Sarah had found a deal on a snow suit and boots at a garage sale, and Molly was happy to try them out. She loved playing in the snow :-)

Molly's Chipped Tooth

2010-01-10T17:21:00.001-08:00

Molly somehow managed to chip one of her teeth while we were in southern California. We aren't quite sure how she did it. She seems to be fine--just missing a chunk of her tooth. Here's a close-up:

Anniversary

2009-12-16T17:18:00.001-08:00

Our Anniversary is coming up and I can't believe that we have been married for 3 years. The time has gone so fast. I have never been more happy than I am with Nathan. I am lucky to have him. Sometimes I still catch myself thinking, "I can't believe I am actually married to Nathan" He is a very patient, kind, giving person. So here are some fun pictures from when we were dating, When we got engaged, and when we got married!

Rasberry Jam was the first thing we realized that we both loved. Usually food conversations showed us that we were very different. When We discovered that we both liked Jam, we were in the grocery store so we took a picture and decided that if Jam was the only food we could agree on, it was enough for us.

He makes me laugh, He lets me cry and I am glad I get to spend forever with him!

Christmas is coming!!!

2009-12-11T09:33:00.000-08:00

We love Christmas time! Molly is decked out and ready to celebrate!

And it finally started to snow and get cold. Nathan took Molly outside and she loved it. She loves the wind and getting wet. She will turn her face right in to the wind and laugh. Silly little girl. The wind was 55 miles per hour so the snow didn't even have a chance to land on the ground. It is hard to see, but the snow is going completely side ways! We are really starting to understand that winter here is going to be cold! Our window in the kitchen is frozen shut and the ice is on the inside too. It really is cold!

Thanksgiving

2009-12-08T08:22:00.000-08:00

We spent Thanksgiving in Michigan at Sarah's Aunt's house. We had a great time getting to know everyone better and just hanging out.

Ben, Rebecca, Christie, Chris, Molly and Jackie

Chris Carving the turkey

Cousin Lois pulled everything together. She and Aunt Bimby masterminded the whole day!

Molly loved the dog. Surprise, surprise!

Janice doing a taste test

Before we drove back to Indiana we went over to the Valentine farm. It was so amazingly beautiful. They took us on a tour and we left with wheat from their fields and honey from their beehives!

Us with cousin Linda

Rebecca, Christie, Chris, Molly, Sarah, Nathan and Jackie

Heading out on the tour.

We had such a good time with everyone. We just wished that we could have stayed longer!

Crazy Curls!

2009-11-24T12:07:00.000-08:00

Molly's hair is starting to get out of control. I love her curls, but they tend to get very frizzy. I e-mailed my friend Sara and asked her what she does with her daughter Makenna who has curls a lot like Molly's. She told me she used spray gel. So we tried it out!

Crazy little curls that match her personality perfectly! Thanks Sara!

Molly's Room

2009-11-12T08:02:00.000-08:00

About a month ago I woke up to a big thud followed by screaming. Molly had climbed out of her crib. She was a little less graceful then she had hoped but, she was successful in getting us to take the bar off her bed. I decided to re-arrange her whole room and finally finish the "M-O-L-L-Y" letters for her wall. ( I bought them last February) So here she is in her room

Now we don't get woken up by a thud and screaming, but we do get woken up by little pitter patter coming towards our room...VERY early in the morning. She is loving her new freedom. I am missing her crib!

My Tomorrow

2009-11-01T11:16:00.000-08:00

This is where I was 6 years ago on halloween. When I look at this picture, I can remember so clearly how I felt. I remember feeling so happy that Samantha was holding my hand. She did not hand out affection easily. That was the day I had finally entered the inner circle in her life. I had worked so hard to win that little girl over. I remember walking down that road by Deric and Muria's house and loving all the colors from the autumn leaves. I remember how good the cold air felt. Photos are such a great way of remembering events in our lives. They have a way of taking us back to that very moment when they were taken. I dont remember once feeling that I should appreciate how great it was to walk without pain or how lucky I was to have a healthy body. If I felt anything about my body on that day I am sure it was something negative.

This is where I was 6 years ago today. While I am sure most of you are sick and tired of hearing about the accident, I will never stop talking about it. It was the day my whole life turned around. Physically for the worse and emotionally and spiritually for the better. While looking at this picture brings back feelings I dont like to feel, I would not change what happened. I have gained so much more than I have lost.

I still have daily reminders of that Novemeber 1st six years ago. I feel a little twinge inside me when I see that first picture because I didnt know what was about to happen. That was the day I learned that you never know what tomorrow will bring. One of my tomorrows brought a terrible car accident but another one brought me an amazing husband, a great little girl, new friends, opportunities, and so much more.

More Little Ladybug

2009-10-31T17:16:00.001-07:00

We took her out trick or treating for a few minutes. She was very confused, but we all had a good time!

Happy Halloween!!!!

2009-10-31T13:15:00.000-07:00

Grana turned Molly in to a cute little lady bug!

Happy Halloween!

Puppies and Pillows

2009-10-17T16:25:00.000-07:00

Have we mentioned Molly is obsessed with dogs! Grana and Tibu sent her these little puppies, and Grana made each one a little puppy bed. Molly LOVES them! She kisses them and puts them to bed, and sometimes just carries them around. I would love to know what goes on in her head as she plays with these puppies.

Every morning Molly and I have a making the bed game. I pretend I cant find her as I make the bed on top of her and then when I do find her, she has to be plopped down in the center of the pillows. Sometimes she will stay there for quite a while just relaxing in the pillows!

Pumpkin Patch

2009-10-13T10:19:00.000-07:00

I would love to post some great pictures with Molly and the pumpkins, but she couldn't have cared less about the pumpkins. She LOVED the dirt!

Photo session with Tara

2009-09-29T11:05:00.001-07:00

One of my best friends took these pictures while we were out in California. She is a great photographer, and I am so grateful she took the time to take some pictures of Molly. It was so much fun to spend time with her and watch her. She is very talented.