A Dose of December

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We visited Temple Square with my family on December 1st to kick off the Christmas Season.  Seems like everyone else in a 50 mile radius also had the same idea.  We dined at the Little America and then made our way up through City Creek and then to Temple Square.  Sloan hated being in her stroller – but with the crowds it was essential.  It really was so beautiful, hoards of people and all…

We continued our tradition of Breakfast with Santa at the Grand America.  Sloan loved her meal a lot more this go around.   

Santa was a different ball game, however.  She was scared half to death and wouldn’t even look at him.  I was worried how the pictures after the meal would turn out and I wasn’t that off.

We took an intermission before they snapped a few photos to look at all the windows, the giant gingerbread house, and ransack the toy store.  Sloan DID smile for the photo with Santa and his lady – but not without her eyes tightly shut.  There’s always next year though – and hopefully she can kick her fear of this jolly guy to the curb.  

My mother-in-law gave us the most darling nativity set that you paint yourself.  We did it the first week of December so we could display it throughout the month.  Sloan was so serious, I thought she’d never be done.

Even though there wasn’t much paint on the actual parts and pieces – she had the time of her life doing it.  The angel was her favorite – as you can tell by the amount of blue paint and glitter applied.

We decided last minute to do a 3D ultrasound of baby boy one Saturday morning.  I know a lot of people say they are a waste of time and money – but we love doing it!  Sloan’s 3D photos actually resemble some of her features to this day.  So we couldn’t pass it up with baby #2.  All three of us went and Sloan LOVED seeing him wiggle, even stick out his tongue, on screen. 

I tried a new recipe that we all loved – Potsticker Soup by Designlovefest.  It’s so easy and delicious (well, if you like potstickers) and totally hit the spot on a cold night.

One Thursday morning I let Sloan wreak havoc with one of her play doh sets and I baked my favorite Christmas treat – almond Danish pastries by my sweet childhood neighbor.  They are not easy to make, but so worth it.  I have been rationing mine out for days now.

Sloan and I delivered some to my dad and brother at his warehouse as well – to carry on tradition.  My dad loves these bad boys as much as I do.  I know it’s one of the things he misses most about living in Taylorsville around the holidays.  Mine are not as good as Bonita’s – but they are the best I can do with limited time and baking skills!

One night for Date Night we got a later reservation at the Roof.  It’s a little tradition Zach and I have going.  We prefer this way of seeing the lights much more – it’s a lot warmer and less crowded.  Plus…there’s crab.

After my 36 week appointment they decided to schedule another growth ultrasound for baby boy.  I was down a few pounds and lost an inch in my belly measurement (because he has dropped).  So just to be sure – and to make sure I was not losing fluid or the baby wasn’t progressing properly – we had to take another visit to the U of U lab and get him checked out.  Luckily, the same sweet girl scanned me that did my anatomy scan at 20 weeks.  Even though they are not allowed to share details – she assured me all was well and he looked perfectly normal.  Measuring around 6 pounds.  Since Sloan was 6 lbs. 6 oz. – this seems just about right.  I’m just not meant to have big babies, I guess.  But little guy does have a set of lips on him – he’s got his dad’s lower lip FOR SURE! 

One morning we made paper snowflakes – to liven up the play room a bit.  Sloan enjoyed opening them after all the sections had been cut out – she couldn’t wait to see what they each looked like.

We’ve been slowly and surely getting ready for baby.  The nursery is so close to being done [not like he’ll be sleeping in it right away anyway] and nearly all his supplies and clothes have been washed, folded and organized.  My hospital bag is nearly packed.  We’ll see what the rest of December has in store for us.

Our November + Thanksgiving

We did some festive things to kick off the month of November.  Thank you Trader Joe’s for making me feel like I can’t live without a gingerbread turkey kit.  Because apparently, I can’t.  Sloan loved every second – especially eating all the candy off the turkey after she dipped it in the frosting. 

We also couldn’t leave the craft store one day without one of those pre-fab foam kits – particularly the Thankful Cafe – and Sloan believed it looked better as a hat rather than a display.  

We hosted Joy School at our house before the holiday and the kiddos loved decorating their pilgrim hats and eating some festive treats.  

We went to Provisions on the night of our actual anniversary – which was the 21st.  It was our first time and I can’t wait to go back already.  Something super strange about me:  if there is Utah trout or any sort of trout on a menu, I will get it.  I love Trout – it’s my favorite fish.  I like it even more than salmon or halibut.  I grew up fishing with my grandpa and occasionally my dad [he hated it with a passion, but would go when we went camping] and grew to love the taste very early on.  So I ordered the trout and it was OFF THE HOOK!  I don’t know what that white pureed stuff was…but I wanted to take home a jar of it and eat it with a spoon.  

Thanksgiving Day I went on an early morning run with my sister-in-laws.  A Turkey Trot, if you will.  I was hoping I could still run over three miles by the time Thanksgiving hit – and I made it!  I still have a goal of running 300 miles this pregnancy.  I am over 277 miles currently – but with less than three weeks left officially I hope I can make it happen.  Zach played hockey afterwards and Sloan and I made a batch of chocolate chip cookies to take to dinner (for those who don’t like pie, apparently).  I also made my assignment – two different types of stuffing – and then we were off to my aunt’s house for dinner.

This is the best family photo we got at Thanksgiving Dinner.  The three and a half of us…and a watering can.  Because a toddler’s life is a mega distracted life.  

It was great to be with family and we ate our fair share.  Afterwards we went through some Black Friday ads and then hit the rode home.

The next morning we relaxed.  We lounged around, ate snacks.

There was no actual Black Friday shopping for me this year.  I bought a few things online because the prices were too good to pass up, but I have all my Christmas shopping done for my family.  And as soon as Friday morning came it was all wrapped, my minimal Thanksgiving decor was down, and my house was officially decorated for Christmas.  It feels so good – knowing it’s all done – before this little man joins our household.  I even have some emergency gifts for him if he decides to come early, before the holiday.

Then later that afternoon we drove up north to the Hendo Cabin for Thanksgiving Round 2.

The food is always delicious and the company is just as great.  Sloan wasn’t a fan of the turkey [marshmallow] shoot this year.  She was terrified of the turkey – until she found out it was her cousin Alex in a costume.  You’d think this kid would be accustom to strange characters roaming around our family get-togethers…

After the turkey came and went – everyone opened their Christmas pajamas.  We are missing 11 grandkids in this photo – but it’s pretty good considering how big the group is still. 

We also had our traditional indoor snowball fight (boys vs girls, adults vs kids) and it totally wore Sloan out.  All the action really took it out of her…

Speaking of grandkids – I got super emotional when I saw baby boy’s stocking hanging up at the cabin.

I devote so much time and energy to Sloan that sometimes [even this far along] I forget there is another little person inside of me.  To see his stocking hung up there made it feel more real: December will be the month we welcome another little person into our family!

I never wanted to have a baby in December.  Not because I wasn’t grateful for any opportunity to carry a child – but no kid wants a December birthday!  But when they told me it would be December, I just started praying it wouldn’t be on Christmas Day.  Now I’ve come to the realization that it’s out of my control completely.  And secretly I feel like the more I wish him not to come on the holiday, the more likely it is to happen.  So…come what may and love it.  Having a newborn in our home during the holiday season will be pure magic.

 

 

 

 

Ninth Anniversary

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We celebrated our anniversary with our trip to Italy – but I convinced Zach super last minute to spend a weekend up in Park City over our actual anniversary.  I got a killer off-season deal at our favorite hotel and my parents were kind of enough to take Sloan for two nights.  We left after Zach got home from work on Friday and ordered food to our room once we arrived at the hotel.  

The next morning we slept in, enjoyed the gym and spa, and then went out to do some baby shopping.  Zach was such a good sport.  We scored some pretty adorable stuff for our little guy.  

We had lunch at El Chubasco and then hit up the outlets.  

We came back to the hotel for an intermission to change our clothes and grab some s’mores before heading to dinner.

We had some time to kill before our dinner reservation – so we shopped a little on Main Street before heading over to Deer Valley for dinner.

The food at our favorite place is always a home run and we polished off the meal with a salted caramel popcorn sundae.  Yes, caramel popcorn on top of ice cream.

The whole thing was honestly so simple and relaxing.  We stayed up late watching movies, talking, and got all of our Christmas shopping done.  Sleeping in passed 7:00 am and hitting up the bomb gym was just the icing on the cake.

I don’t deserve the last nine years of marriage to Zach.  He is the most thoughtful person on the planet.  He makes our life so wonderful and fun.  Watching him become a father has made me love him even more than I thought I could.  I didn’t know how long it would be before we got to spend some alone time together after this baby comes.  I am so glad we made this happen, albeit so spur of the moment.  I can’t wait to love him even more after this little man makes us a family of four.

 

Sloan’s 3rd Birthday

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We have a three-year-old living in this house now.  It didn’t seem real until the night before her party.  I was wrapping her gifts and setting up decorations and I had to keep myself from choking up.  She’s grown so much over the past few months.  She seems so much older now, for so many reasons.

We surprised her with a few books and silly toys – but when she saw her strider bike she completely lost it.

We went out to lunch later to celebrate and then that evening our families came over to have some dinner and dessert.  She chose a Peter Pan theme – which made my life pretty easy.  I love planning parties and it turned out so fun.  Sloan didn’t notice the decorations and didn’t care much for the food – but she loved having everyone she loved at our house at the same time.

My friend Stephanie made her cake.  It not only was gorgeous but it was delicious.  It was probably my favorite thing about the whole party.  

She was totally spoiled by our families.  She’s such a lucky girl to have such an amazing support system in her life.

“Never Grow Up” – not just the theme, but my secret wish for this little/big girl.  She has such a giant heart and endless amounts of energy.  I love this age – but my 8-month pregnant self can’t quite keep up with her.  I hope she never loses her excitement for the little things.  It’s one of the attributes I love the most about her.

October + Halloween 2017

October was an absolute blast.  Easily one of my favorite months of the year.  It’s so fun to see the leaves change and feel the temps drop.  We went on a few family hikes before it got too cold.  One of our favorite places was the Wild Rose Trail up in North Salt Lake above the golf course.  We collected leaves and some of us collected rocks…


We made endless amounts of pumpkin flavored things.  If you haven’t tried Trader Joe’s jumbo cinnamon rolls…you are not living your best life.  They did have pumpkin flavored ones as well, for a short amount of time.

We also decorated Halloween cookies.  This year we tried tombstones.  Sloan’s not picky.  As long as she gets to pour the glaze all over the cookies, she could care less what shape they are.

We attended several Utah Football games – where the weather was actually quite pleasant.  I hit my 7 month of this pregnancy as well.  Sometimes I have to pinch myself.  This pregnancy has flown by so fast, it feels like we just found out we were expecting.

We visited Cross E Ranch – several times, actually.  Each time Sloan couldn’t have been happier.  I was finding kernels of corn in random places around our house for weeks.  Thank you, revolting corn pit…

We went to “Scary Hill” on one Saturday morning and enjoyed a lovely tractor hay ride through the skeleton field.  I thought that would be Sloan’s favorite part – but in fact her favorite part was the Clifford coin-opperated ride near the refreshment area.  So she probably would have been happier going to the mall instead.

We pre-gamed for Halloween with some trick-or-treating at Target the Saturday before the actual holiday.  Sloan enjoyed it – and the free fruit snacks – but Zach and I were unimpressed.  Next year; we’re going to Lee’s!  I heard it was OFF THE HOOK! 

The morning of Halloween was my turn to host Joy School.  Sloan and I prepped by making frosting to decorate cookies.  We also decorated her pumpkin – that she picked out the supplies for [I didn’t fight her one bit – these no carve solutions are GENIUS for Toddlers] and she had the time of her life.

We had Darren and Tillie over for Joy School and we learned about the letter F.  We colored Frankensteins and frosted sugar cookies.  

Sloan ate almost all of her candy off her cookies before I could snap a decent picture of them. 

After Joy School we got all dressed up and went trick-or-treating at my brother’s warehouse so we could see my family for a bit and had Cafe Rio take-out for lunch.

Then we drove up to Ogden with Zach and visited his parents.

Half of her costume was stripped off [she hated the tulle skirt] before we left Mimi and Papa’s house.  Sloan left with a year’s supply of Bubble Tape and her own spooky doorbell decoration.

We went trick-or-treating around our neighborhood before it got dark and then returned back home to carry on our super classy and festive tradition of Little Caesar’s for dinner while we passed out candy to the kiddos that came to our door.

Sloan had a serious sugar crash – most definitely the 8 Dum Dum lollipops she got from our bishop – and could barely keep her eyes open for a piece of crazy bread.

We had a fantastic holiday – and possibly even a better time leading up to it.  Sloan loved all things Halloween and “spooky” and she keeps asking when we can go trick-or-treating again.  She even has a few houses she plans on going to next year…

 

 

September + October General Conference

First, I have to catch up. September slipped through our fingers. Technically, first was Zach’s birthday. Sloan and I did our best to make it special for him – since he always makes everything wonderful for the two of us. We are so lucky to have him and wanted to show our love and appreciation for him.  We started his day off with his favorite breakfast, German pancakes.

As soon as he got home from work the three of us rushed off to Benihana for dinner.  Some traditions will never die.  Lucky for Zach, Sloan loved every second of it.  The entertainment, the fried rice, the paper hat she wore the entire meal and the trip home. She also asked me this week if Zach could take her on her “first date to Benihana”.  So I guess the love for Benihana is hereditary. Looks like I’m never going to be able to cut this cord…When we got home from dinner we all had a piece of Zach’s favorite dessert [really the only one he actually likes] his mom’s chocolate cake that Sloan and I had made the night before. It sits in the fridge overnight and Sloan had been begging for a piece since I pulled it hot out of the oven – sans frosting.  

Then later that week Zach and I got to go out to dinner to celebrate, just the two of us at his favorite restaurant.

I hope he enjoyed his birthday as much as we did – attempting to make it fun for him.  Sloan gets so excited about the little things – and keeps asking when it will finally be her birthday.  To which she asked for a “Peter Pan Birthday” this year – so I’ve been planning for some time. Just trying to be as prepared as possible with baby brother coming in three short months.

Sloan also started Joy School with our darling neighbors one street over – Darren and Tillie.  The three of them didn’t make the official cut for pre-school because they didn’t turn three come September.  I felt so guilty – like Sloan would be behind in some way.  So when my friend and neighbor approached me about doing Joy School with her, I was all in! She went to her first week at the twins’ house and loved every second. She even packed a bag with crayons and plastic fruit, just in case.

This last week was my week to host.  Sloan loved having Darren and Tillie over and to learn about the letter B we baked bread.  It was definitely the highlight of their class, but I should have predicted that.

Truth be told – I’ve been burning fall scented candles for weeks.  And if I’m being honest I’ve been baking fall-ish desserts for even longer. I’m on a serious bran muffin kick – my personal favorite being the apple oat bran muffins I’ve made twice now.  I’ve got a small stock pile in the freezer for now.

But Sloan actually prefers the pumpkin bran muffins.

We officially kicked off fall on September 21st [you know…like the Earth, Wind, and Fire song] by painting pumpkins and eating taco soup out of pumpkin bread bowls.

Speaking of soup, last week I attempted making my own chicken noodle soup from scratch for the first time.  It turned out pretty good – but Sloan was thrown off with the black bats [black bow tie pasta] and pumpkins [carrots].

Maybe chicken BOOdle soup will have to wait a while – until Sloan’s a bit older and not totally freaked out by it.

Zach and I would be lying if we said we weren’t missing Italy in the best way.  Zach’s favorite dish he ate while over there was a seafood dish with calms, mussels, and shrimp in a tomato sauce.  I found a similar recipe online and decided to surprise him and make it.  I wasn’t going to let the mussels and clams intimidate me – or the fact that I had to go into a liquor store and buy white wine nearly 7 months pregnant.  But that’s neither here nor there.

The dish turned out good and the mussels and clams weren’t terrible to master.  They were quite easy once they were dead and cooked [yeah – you cook them live, no big deal]. But now I have a little more experience cooking with live shellfish, I guess?

I’ve been counting down the days until fall session of conference.  I was thrilled when I found out it landed on October 1st – and we decided to kick off Halloween that weekend.  Because October 1st is literally the earliest I think that it is socially acceptable.  I purchased some Halloween jammies for Sloan, a stack of Halloween books, and geared up for both days and all four sessions.

 

Friday morning we made Halloween cookies per Sloan’s request.

They are some of my favorite that we have done thus far.  Sloan literally couldn’t stop laughing at them.  We also made some plain old circles and a few leaf cookies – but they weren’t nearly as fun!

We moved date night to Friday evening so Zach could go to Priesthood session on Saturday [our usual date night].  We went out for Ramen and then saw a movie down town.  It was a great way to kick off the weekend.

Saturday morning Zach let me go for a long run.  I’ve officially hit over 200 miles this pregnancy.  The weather was gloomy but I got back in time for breakfast.

I set up a jar of bribes to keep Sloan’s attention.  I originally had 6 words – but realized how overloaded Sloan would get on snacks. So we settled for her four favorite treats and listened intently to reward her as each word was spoken.  Gummy worms were the crowd favorite, for the record.

It actually did work.  Every time the words were heard, there were cheers all around!  NOTE:  I should have chosen SERVICE as a word for one of the rewards.  I swear we heard it 100+ times.

We also built temples out of blocks – which turned out to be Zach’s favorite activity.  He got WAY more into it than Sloan and I did.

I wish I would have snapped a picture of the futuristic “2040 Temple” he built. 

I made homemade bread during the end of the first session so we could enjoy it during lunch between sessions.  When in Positano I purchased some pesto [two jars] from our favorite little shop and deli.  I made Zach bring it home in his suitcase – in which one of the jars broke and we had to throw away.  But I still had a jar I had been waiting to bust open, and it was just as delicious as I had remembered.  Worth the haul, if you ask me.

The second session was during Sloan’s nap so Zach and I listened together alone. It was so relaxing and I got so much out of the second session.  Soon afterwards Sloan woke up and Zach got ready to go to Priesthood session.  I made manicotti for dinner and we ate together before Zach left.

The next morning I made breakfast and we busted out all things Halloween.  The first session we had a craft and painted a wooden bat.  Thank you Target dollar aisle, we love you!

We also colored and built more block temples.

During the last talk of the first session I sensed Sloan’s boredom and we busted out the next session’s craft [which worked out – because she slept through all but 15 minutes of the last Sunday session].  We made a Haunted Cookie House and it was the highlight of Sloan’s entire day.

(I know I’m a fan already – but TJ’s has some AMAZING pumpkin/fall/Halloween stuff happening right now.  I kind of had a hay-day last week in preparation for conference.)

We enjoyed lunch together and then Sloan napped during the last session.  It was such a good weekend.  I secretly loved the gloomy weather and the fact that we were all set up inside, listening and watching. I baked up a storm and we were all completely full – spiritually and physically.

It will hold us over until spring, I suppose…