Recent Fun Stuff

This post is going to be pretty random.  There's not much of a story to any of it, other than I had a few cute pictures I wanted to share and I'm really proud of my recent cooking accomplishments :) So enjoy a moment of random bits from our life.

 Nate LOVES going down slides.  He'll climb his way up and go down on his belly.  This particular playground is pretty high and that slide is mega steep (I even get a little nervous going down myself). So we don't let him go alone on this one, but he squeals the entire way down.

 Outdoor screen showing a family movie.  

We caught only the end of a Bugs Bunny film.  But it was fun to be outside and we got free hot chocolate :)

 (Nate's eyes are a little creepy here.) 

I have to confess...we didn't go to a pumpkin patch.  I just wanted it to look like we did.  So I saw this wagon of pumpkins and took a picture :)  Pumpkin patch will have to wait till next year.

Shopping at Target

These stuffed toys are $20. If they were $5, I would have gotten him one for his birthday because he was in love. Since we already got him a cool gift for his birthday, I resisted. He was hugging both Spiderman and Batman as if they were his favorite people in the world. This kid has no toys or anything related to either one, this was his first exposure to both.  How is it that boys are just naturally obsessed with these two super guys?

Eggs in a basket...pumpkin shaped style. 

This dinner was a major success.  We had our friends over and I made a copycat Olive Garden recipe of the Zuppa Toscano Soup (thanks to my sister Kirsten for the recipe.)  I also made homemade french bread (which by the way is super easy and super yummy.)  Call me crazy for photographing my food...but I was happy it turned out!

 And of course, the temple, instagram style.  Sorry that tree is right there, but I took the picture from where our car was parked.  It was awesome to go to the temple with my favorite person ever, Steve.  It such a wonderful thing to be able to go and enjoy the peaceful spirit there.  And the grounds are GORGEOUS this time of year.

Nate's Heart Business

As Nate's birthday has gotten closer I've reflected a lot on when he was born.  It was such a special time for us for many reasons.  The biggest reason is of course that we were becoming parents for the first time and welcoming a beautiful baby boy into our family.  Nothing beats that.  But it was also special to us because of Nate's heart surgery.  It was a time of spiritual growth, a trial of faith, and a lesson on service.  I grew closer to the Lord in those 2 weeks at the Children's Hospital.  If you want to see what I wrote about that a year ago, you can click here.  But I have been grateful all over again for so many people and experiences.  

I watched a mormon message the other day about a little girl who had a liver disease and was dying.  The family had been in the area for a only a few months when they discovered her illness so they didn't know anyone.  The message was about all the people from her neighborhood and from her LDS church that came together to raise money and help out the family in any way possible.  It touched me so much as I watched it because I remembered all the people that helped our little family.  We had been in the area for only 2 months and didn't know a whole lot of people.  People were so good to us.  People we didn't know were fasting and praying for Nate.  Someone made Steve lunches for school since we were staying at the hospital.  They provided us with big meals.  They offered whatever help we needed.  These people were truly showing me, Steve, and Nate the love of our Savior through their actions.  So thanks again to everyone who made that experience much easier for us! 

And...to top it all off, we had a check up with the Cardiologist last week.  And she was so impressed with how he's doing.  His heart looks great.  The little problems he had at his 6 month check up look MUCH better and he has a healthy heart. 

He loved the waiting room this time!

For his echo we had to put him in this cute little robe.  I wanted to take it home with me so bad.  

They monitored his heart for 24 hours so the poor kid had to carry that thing around all day and sleep with it.  I tried a lot of different ways to strap it on him and he didn't really like any of them.

There it is without his clothes on.  Haha, I think his face totally expresses what he though of it: "Are you kidding me, Mom?"

Sweet little boy.  We love him.

Trademark Expo for families

The United States Patent and Trademark Office hosts a trademark expo every year.  It's a family event and is just filled with booths to help people understand trademarks better.  Does that sound boring?  Well, it was actually VERY interesting and SUPER fun :)  I learned a lot.  The most interesting, yet disturbing, thing I learned was a booth about illegal products.  So all the fake stuff that people make to look like the real deal.  I couldn't tell the difference with most of the products, even with them side by side.  They looked exactly the same.  I had the questions in my mind, "Of course I don't want to buy something illegal, but I wonder if the product's quality is that much worse than the real thing...because if it's way cheaper, why not buy the illegal thing."  Bad way of thinking, it was just a though that I had for a moment.  And then we chatted with this man about the perfume.  Ready to be grossed out?  They distribute the real perfume into 15 bottles or so and then fill the remaining space in the bottle with urine.  I guess that it brings out the perfume smell more so it lasts longer and is stronger.  YUCK.  So if you see perfume for an outrageously cheap price, don't even think about it, it's probably illegal and is full of yuckiness.   

Okay, sorry I shared that story, but I hope it helps anyone if they are tempted to buy too cheap of perfume.  

It was actually really fun and we got lots of free stuff.  And we got pictures with all the cool characters going around.  Nate was terrified of them.

The Geico gecko

He thought this was the coolest thing EVER

Of course I took a picture with Barbie

Mr. Crayon

Bob the Builder

We had our stroller so we used the elevator.  Well, we rode an elevator with the 5-hour Energy man (he's in the back), the Cheeto cheetah guy, and the Idaho spud man.  Now that doesn't happen every day.

Steve's favorite

Birth Certificate for the almost 1 year old

Nate turns one in 2 weeks.

And I just got his birth certificate today.
Hehe, whoops, better late than never :)

But I now have official proof that he was born and born to me and Steve. 

On another birthday note...I'm so excited because I think we might have a little party for him.  

A monster mash and I am so excited to make monster cupcakes.  No worries, I will post pictures.

Our Friendly Fetus

"Oh hey guys!"

That cute little hand was waving at us during the sonogram.  

Personality already shows, even at 15 weeks :)

A rich person party

So there's some story to this.  Nate and I went to the doctor one day and a man asked us to be in a video.  He said it was just a little video to show what InovaCares Clinics do for their patients.  I was excited, I actually showered and got ready for the day that day :)  So Nate and I got fed lunch and then did our thing and they said they'd send me a link to the video (which they still haven't done yet, but you better believe I'll post it when they do.)  

Anyways, several weeks later, I get an email thanking me for participating in the video.  It explained that it will be shown at the annual Inova Gala.  This is put on for people who donate, or potentially might donate, to the Inova hospitals.  They invited me and my family to attend and asked if I would be willing to stand up and say thank you to everyone for helping Inova provide the care for my family.  It was a fancy dinner and a black tie event so I would get to dress up and go on a fancy date with Steve.  Well, it just so happened that it was during the Priesthood session of General Conference.  So that was a bummer.

But, I happen to be lucky enough to have cool friends.  Ginny, one of my all time favorite people and roommate from our BYU single days, was my date/guest :)  We had a lot of fun.  When we got there we had to register.  They gave us a little iphone looking thing to do our bidding for the auction and swiped our credit cards for easy checkout (as if we were going to bid $1,000 on something) We went around and ate the fancy appetizers, refused the fancy white wine, and laughed as we pretended to bid on these things worth hundreds of dollars. 

That's my bidding number for the live auction...Haha, it made me think of Storage Wars, that show where they bid on abandoned storage units. 

 There was a photo booth and we took some pictures and then went into the dinner. It was so fancy and beautiful in there.  We had assigned seats and we felt important.  

The rather interesting center piece.  It was for sale too in case anyone couldn't resist.

Anyways, we enjoyed a beautiful salad with a side of goat cheese mousse and a feast of steak, fish, and sweet pea flan (meat was amazing, the flan was weird...).  

They showed the video that Nate and I are in (Nate was the star by the way :)) and then I stood up on the stage and thanked Inova and all those that have made it possible for us to have good care.  

This is me doing the sound check before it started.  That man wasn't really standing there staring at me when I got up for real.

Then they brought out the dessert, which was way too fancy looking to even taste good. 

And then we were entertained by Big Bad Voodoo Daddy.  I had never heard of them and I was a bit suspicious of the whole Voodoo part of their name, but I loved them!  They were a band that played jazzy swing type music.  They were so fun.  

You can hear what they sounded like on the video.  People were out there dancing too.  I wish Steve could have busted out his swing moves with me.

Then Ginny and I explored the fancy hotel for a minute and used the restroom that's nicer than my bedroom and went home.  It was quite a night. 

They don't do paper towels in the bathroom, they have a basket full of hand towels and a hamper on the side.

I know it's silly to post a picture of my hair, but I was really proud of it.
It was a super easy Pinterest hair-do :)

So, not really that big of a deal, but I'm telling you, I felt like a celebrity for a minute.  I had my hair up as nice as I can do without help from my mom, in my nicest clothes, cameras flashing all around me as I'm speaking to a bunch of incredibly rich people, some of which are kind of famous.
Afterwards, the CEO of all Inova hospitals came up to me and thanked me. I had a moment of fame and it was kind of exciting.  But after being there, I am grateful to be where I am at this stage in my life.  I love being a mom and staying home with Nate.  I love living on the student budget and enjoying the simple things.  I love eating homemade cookies or Safeways brand ice cream instead of fancy desserts.  And I love eating vegetables in veggie form instead of flan form.  But I really am grateful for generous people that donate so much to things like hospitals and clinics because it does make a difference for me.  

Truth declared by living Prophets and Apostles

Every 6 months The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has a worldwide conference.  It's broadcast from Salt Lake to everywhere in the world. That right there is pretty amazing, I think.  But what's awesome about it is the speakers aren't just good men sharing their thoughts about scriptures.  They are called by God as His Prophet and Apostles and servants.  They are God's mouthpiece on the earth today.  

Here's a picture of these incredible men:

First Presidency (prophet and counselors):

12 Apostles:

You can watch the conference here

You can learn more about it here

It was a fabulous conference and I was uplifted.  It's definitely a different experience when you have an 11 month old to keep busy for that long, but I was still able to feel the spirit and the truthfulness of their words.  I know these men are called of God.

Sick baby

Friday night Nate had a fever of 103!  It scared me just a bit.  He had a fever all day Saturday and through the night again.  Poor kid.  He's doing better now and back to normal.  I don't know what caused the fever, but having a sick baby is so sad!  He would just cuddle up and moan.  The cuddling is awesome, the moaning not so much.  Steve didn't have class today until noon, so we actually slept in today.  It was so nice to catch up on sleep.  All three of us were up till 3 both nights trying to get Nate to sleep and then getting up every little bit to get him back to sleep.  So we caught up on sleep today and hopefully he's done with being sick for a while.  

On a happier note...

Nate turns 1 this month!  He's getting so big.  He's started standing on his own, kind of. He's definitely not a bitty little baby anymore.  I got this handsome sweater at a thrift store and I love it!  He's not smiling, but he looks like a handsome big boy.