January 2011

Here's the monthly rundown!

Bailey

In January Bailey turned 8 months, here’s our monthly photo shoot.
(I'm getting a bit more creative)

 

Some milestones:
Crawling – not just a scoot/crawl, actual crawling, pulls herself up to kneeling, and a little standing here and there

This all means she’s into everything

Feeds herself and holds her sippie cup

LOVES the blinds, strings, mirrors, her night light and blows raspberries on everything – including my cheek, Mark and I laughed so hard!

Sits up in the bath

Bites the spoon and blows out her food - fun for us!

Loved her new polka dot sheets

Still loves books, and the TV, she even watched it sideways for a while

She also...

Scoots back when excited, hops on knees, squeals at naptime

Can go from sitting to crawling back to sitting

Crawls to my feet and yells until I pick her up

Reaches for mom when dad is holding her…mamma’s girl (for now)

Totally on a bottle and sleeping 12 hours at night no more middle of night wakings! Yay!

Lunges for her crib, grabs her snuggle and falls right to sleep

Four top teeth and two bottom teeth

Still pulling her hair when she eats… any tips on how to break that?

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Aquarium

On New Year’s Day my family went to the Living Planet Aquarium. I know what you’re thinking, “UTAH has an aquarium?” that’s what I thought the first time too. I was actually quite impressed. They had a giant octopus, jelly fish, sting rays you could pet, bright tropical fish, frogs, an electric eel that could light up a Christmas tree, baby alligators, penguins, and an anaconda that we watched kill and eat a rabbit. Oooh cool huh? I can’t wait until Bailey’s older and can have fun at these kinds of things. Allie and I will act like children until then.

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Family Photos

My family took advantage of the 2 days we had with everyone there and took some quick family photos before Mark and I left for Moscow. Here’s a few.

I'm super cheese in this one.

 Hyrum, Allie, and Owen

 Love how these came out, look how beautiful these two are!

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Moscow

Sadly our Christmas break and stay in Utah had to come to an end. We started driving back on January 2nd, stayed the night at Allie and Hyrum’s house in Melba while they were still back in Utah, then continued on to Moscow. The roads were like an ice skating rink and we both decided that we’d fly next time – especially after figuring out that it would cost the same to fly and rent a car!

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Moving

We were actually really excited to go back home to Moscow, why? Not just to sleep in our own bed and walk around in our underwear (what?!?) but because we moved to that apartment we wanted! They had an opening and we took it! So we started packing and moving on the 4th, cleaned and checked out of the old place on the 7th, and everything was in its place and put away by the 10th – all but 2 boxes and a laundry basket. It was a lot of work in the snow and I had bruises, chipped nails, cracked and bleeding hands, sore muscles and Mark was the same. Bailey cried A LOT and I thought it was because she was used to being held for all of December, later I found two upper teeth and felt bad for the little girl! She was teething the entire time and I didn’t even think it could be that! But we all made it through and it was actually a lot easier than our first move in August. I still can’t believe we did it all in 6 days.

Welcome Home!

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Mark started school again on the 10th and we got back to our regular lives. Here’s what else we did in January.

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Jewelry: Tom Design

Well jewelry slowed down quite a bit in January after all the holidays, which I expected. I took this time to take a little break from the stress of December. I did have some brides contact me for bridesmaid’s jewelry – I love making wedding jewelry! I mean I love weddings, so what could be better than helping these girls with theirs? Plus all brides get a discount… we both win! I also replenished my inventory and came up with some new spring products. So I guess I really didn’t take THAT much of a break.

A wedding order

The start of some new products.... just you wait!

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Crafty Things

As mentioned above, jewelry slowed down in January so I had some “free time” to complete a few projects and ideas I’ve had spinning around in my head. The end of January I started to use my SLR camera more, yeah, the one I got almost five years ago! I love the way the photos come out when you have complete control over the camera - you can make the photographs come out exactly how you want them. So I photographed some projects (I'll post those projects later) and made a goal to use my SLR camera for everything, not just formal photos. Some photos in this post were taken with my SLR most were not, but February is full o' them!
I use my SLR for all of the photo shoots with Bailey. Can you tell which other photos are SLR and which are point and shoot? I can.

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A few more things

I should mention that Mark and I received new callings in our ward. Mark is the Elder’s Quorum Secretary, and I’m part of the Relief Society Meetings Committee. Bishop didn’t know what my calling was and neither did I, I just accepted it. I found out later that I’m on the “Enrichment” committee, but they don’t call it that anymore. I’m excited to have this calling! We’ve already planned some fun things for the spring.

I also had fun with friends at our monthly Bunco night – I won some super comfy pants (thanks Hollie D.), and got back together with our play group babies and friends. Moscow is really starting to feel like home for us.