Mark, Debbie and Bailey Thompson

September 2011

2012-01-29T14:38:00.000-08:00

Yes, I'm still convinced that I can catch up on blogging. Even though it's January and I'm blogging September, I know I can do it! So here's what happened in September, mostly in photos.

Parks and an Ouch

I took Bailey to a park every day. We had a lot more time on our hands with it just being Bailey and I again, so we took advantage of the warm weather and sunshine while we could. By the way, Moscow is great in the parks department, there's like 15 parks in this tiny town!

Bailey had her first "ouch" from a sliver from a park outing. It was the biggest sliver I had ever seen. We had to pin her down and dig it out. Poor girl. Whenever we asked her where her "ouch" was she always pointed to her head...

Play Dates

We had a few play dates in September, one was with Clark and Abby. These funny kids were so cute playing together!

Then Nayomee, Clark, Bailey and I took a little trip to Kendrick. We took the kids to a park for lunch first, then we went shopping at all the fun antique stores! My favorite store had all their antiques displayed by color. Now that's my kind of store! If you know me, you know that I am a little OCD about organization and colors. I have to arrange and eat my candy in color order, and I have to arrange shapes of things in like groups. I know, I'm weird. It was fun to see all the fun old stuff and of course, take some fun photos. (Bailey thought that little dog was a cat)

While in Kendrick, I talked to a lady who owned one of the stores and found out she also owned the Antique Mall in Moscow. I had been meaning to go in there and talk to the owner about putting my jewelry in the store, perfect! I talked to her and it was go! So now Tom Design Jewelry is in the Antique Mall in Moscow. Yay!

My friends and I also had a little girl's night of our own. It was one of Ashley's last nights with us in Moscow so we went to dinner, went shopping, and saw the movie, "The Help". Love these girls.

Spring Valley

The Ritchies and Muirs invited us to Spring Valley Resevoir for some tin foil dinners. I love things like that. Mark and I are actually big on camping but can't really do those things with a baby. Tin foil dinners will have to do until we can. I loved taking photos of Bailey and Abby playing. We sure do miss her!

Ducks

Our stake had an opening social at a park in Pullman. The best part was that there was a huge duck pond! Bailey loves ducks, and this park proved no exception, she was in love. She waved to them, tried to hold them, and shared her dinner with them.

Farmer's Market

Moscow has a great Saturday Farmer's Market, it's one of their selling points to get people to come to town. This was only our second time going, but I knew I wanted to do a little photography experiment: photograph the color wheel! I used to do this with my junior high photography students and then I saw my photographer friend do it at the market so I tried it there too. I love all the colors, especially when they're lined up like this.

Here's what the photos are.

This girl had fun too.

County Fair

Lucky for us the Latah County Fair is in Mosow! We went last year with the Muirs when the kids were babies, I think Bailey slept through most of it. This year we went with the Muirs again and the Robertsons, and best part was that the kids were toddlers and they actually had fun! It took Bailey a while to warm up, but she eventually did and loved seeing all the animals, flashing lights of the rides, the concert, and of course those ginormous Elephant Ear scones, yummmm.

SO many lights, colors, and sounds!

August 2011 Part 2: CLC, Walking, Play Time, a Farewell

2011-11-04T12:55:00.000-07:00

Craft Lake City

The day after Rick and Janice's wedding reception in Utah, I had a craft fair "Craft Lake City". I spent quite a bit of time getting ready and even made a nice vinyl banner for my canopy. It was an incredibly hot day - we even put that huge garbage can right there to shade where I was sitting, but it turned out to be a pretty good show.

1/2 of my booth

Walking

Bailey got the courage to start walking more this month. I would take her outside and have her practice with me, I loved holding her hand and walking with her, so sweet! She had a few scraped knees and scuffed up her shoes pretty bad but she got the hang of it!

Lots of stopping to investigate new things!

Farewell BBQ
The last week the three of us were in Utah we decided to throw a little Farewell BBQ for ourselves. We wanted to have fun with everyone one last time. The best part of the BBQ were the hamburgers! I got the patties from Costco and they were 1/2 pounders! HUGE! Mark did all the grilling, I took photos, Bailey practiced walking, and everyone just chatted and talked and enjoyed the evening.

Play Time
Of course I have to post some fun, play time photos of Bailey each month. She keeps us laughing and on our toes! She loves getting into everything and exploring new things. She even loves going down the slide head first!

August 2011 Part 1: A Wedding

2011-11-03T21:43:00.000-07:00

Mark's brother, Rick, got married in August so we all joined him and Janice in California to see them get married in the Oakland Temple. We made the decision to fly and rent a car - so glad we did. And that way we were able to make it a mini vacation instead of spending days driving.

San Francisco

We spent the first day around downtown San Francisco. First, we sat in traffic for about an hour and a half. There was a baseball game just getting out right when we got there, perfect! After that we ate dinner at In-N-Out, walked around the Piers, saw some cool submarines, went in an antique arcade, then made our way down to Fisherman's Wharf. It's a good thing we packed winter coats for everyone we needed them! I remembered as a kid it was always freezing in SF and we always had to buy sweatshirts, but we were warm in that freezing ocean wind.

The Zoo

The next day we went to the San Francisco Zoo. This was way fun, and little warmer too! The SF Zoo has way more animals than the Hogle zoo and lots of space for them to roam. Of course Bailey made all the animal noises she knew and we even got to hear the lions roar! They had a special Tarantula exhibit while we were there, YUCK! I still get goosebumps thinking about those, some were HUGE!

Wedding Part 1

That night we headed over to the church to help set up for the reception. We got the ceiling put up and since that was the part Rick and Janice worried about the most I thought the worst was over. Nope. We spent the next two days setting up for the reception/ring ceremony/dinner, it was a ton of work, we did everything you see in the photos. But it was Janice's dream come true - she had been designing and planning this since she was 12 so it was all worth it. It's a good thing we love her! Jake and his family also baptised Isaac and blessed Sadie during this time.

Before

After

Wedding Day

The wedding day was beautiful, we spent the morning in the pool, later in the morning finishing the church, then the ceremony. There were a few bumps along the way including Jake's car breaking down. We had to stall the temple for 30 minutes, but everyone made it safe and it was a beautiful ceremony. Then we headed to the church and had a ring ceremony for all of Janice's friends and family, a delicious dinner, a program, and DANCING! Dancing made me forget how tired I was from setting up and how bad my feet hurt. I even danced while cleaning up! Clean up took until about 1:00am, but we lucked out and only stayed till 11:00pm to take Bailey home to sleep. Bailey was such a trooper through all the craziness. She was able to fall asleep in her car seat wherever - even through the dancing!

The next day we woke up late, really late, threw everything in our suitcases and sped off to the airport to catch our plane. We've never been out of a hotel faster than that and we got to the airport 10 minutes before our plane LEFT. We got through security super fast since we had a baby, they even passed me with 2 water bottles! Then we RAN about 1/4 mile to the gate I was pushing Bailey in the stroller and was ahead of Mark and Marcie. People were yelling "You're going to make it!" Ha ha! Then I heard a hostess yelling "Thompson?!?" down the hall of gates and I said, "THAT'S ME!" They let me on without a boarding pass... and then let Mark and Marcie on. Whew, we made it. We got to the SLC airport, but since we were so late our checked bags did not - and that's where the keys to our car were. They came on a later flight! Ha!

A week later we did it all again for a reception in Utah. All the girls made 125 cupcakes, we frosted, made sandwiches, decorated, and I made my very first wedding cake! I think it turned out beautiful! I learned that you can cover all your mistakes with ribbon and flowers :)

All in all it was a busy, tiring, but super fun trip! We loved spending the time with Mark's family!

July 31, 2011: Melba

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Towards the end of July we took a trip to Melba for Owen’s 1^st birthday (Allie and Hyrum’s 1^st). We spent the weekend up there and Mark even got to come along since it was Pioneer day in Utah. I’ll admit, sometimes we get bored in Melba, but then Hyrum lets Mark ride his motorcycle, the boys go fishing, I photograph everything, we watch the babies play, and this time I even got on a dirt bike! So it turns out there are lots of things to do there you just have to make your own fun sometimes!

I've been wanting to practice lens flare for a while and I got some good chances on the farm as the sun went down. (Lens flare is the effect of the sun reflecting off the lens and creating colorful spots on the image)

This year Hyrum's dad planted corn instead of beans, talk about being secluded!

July 2011 A Few Random Photos

2011-10-09T22:48:00.000-07:00

Yep, these are just some random photos of playtime with Bailey. I always have my camera out to capture these fun moments and I'm glad that I take so many photos each month (like over 1,000 per month). I love going through them and remembering the fun times I have taking care of our little girl. It also reminds me how much I love photography.

Oh yeah, and this is what my lunches looked like most days. Yum!

July 31, 2011: Owen's Birthday

2011-10-09T22:15:00.000-07:00

Owen’s birthday party was lots of fun! How can it not be with a crazy boy like Owen? Allie made a fun construction cake and put on a “burger bar” for everyone. We ate delicious burgers, watched the kiddos in the pool – Owen just crawled right in, and then watched Owen open presents and explore his cake. I laugh every time I see some of these pictures of Owen, we love him!

Watching a show with Grandpa before the party

The Burger Bar

Grandma Hadley couldn't resist getting Bailey a little present too :)

BIG ANNOUNCEMENT

After the cake, Allie and Hyrum announced baby #2 due March 1st! I love each of their expressions in this photo. It was a surprise...to everyone!

And my favorite photo from the party.

July 2011 Another pool day...with a new do!

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The photos say it all.

By the way, these were SOOTC (straight out of the camera).

July 2011 Standing!

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In July Bailey got the confidence to start standing on her own. We would put a blanket on the floor and tell her to stand up on it. It was then always referred to as “The Stand-up Blanket”. She would only stand up on that particular blanket. We’d even tell her to stand up and she’d crawl over to the blanked and tug at it until we put it on the floor. Then she’d put on her show: stand up, look at us, smile, clap, then fall down and repeat.

July 2011 She Loves those Swings

2011-10-09T19:06:00.000-07:00

Bailey and I took a few trips to the park this summer just to swing on the swing. This day we got a snow cone ~~to share~~ for me to eat. As you can see she loves swings, and snow cone straws.

July 9, 2011 Rora's Birthday!

2011-10-09T18:50:00.000-07:00

My little niece, “Rora” (Ben and Leslie’s girl #2) turned the big 1 in July! Rora and Bailey are exactly 2 months apart. We celebrated with Mark’s family and watched as she dug into her cute cupcake cake that Leslie made. She just watched all of us watching her like it was no big deal to eat this ginormous cake! So cute, we love you Rora!

July 2011, I Love to Grill

2011-10-09T16:46:00.000-07:00

I have always loved the taste of a juicy, grilled steak or chicken. I remember asking my parents what was for dinner when I was younger and when they replied, "Chicken on the grill" I got super excited. Mark and I have never owned a good grill so when we lived with my parents this summer I knew I'd be flarin' up theirs. We had plenty of grilled dinners and even a few outside on the patio.

Not sure if I've posted about Bailey's "excited face" yet. She started doing this in May. All I say is "Bailey, are you excited?" and she holds her breath, squeezes her hands in fists, smiles, and shakes until she can't hold her breath anymore. Then she laughs and does it again. So funny! Here's a little compilation of her excitedness:

July 2011 Swimming with Ashley and Abby

2011-10-07T13:09:00.000-07:00

My good friend Ashley and her daughter, Abby came to Utah over the summer, Bailey and I were way excited to see them again! And her in-laws have a swimming pool, perfect! We went swimming a couple times and had lots of fun, so much fun that Abby fell asleep in the pool both times.

These photos were also an experiment with some fun Photoshop effects I've been learning. Wish my skin was that smooth everyday!

Bird Watching

2011-09-24T14:37:00.000-07:00

I got my parents a bird feeder this summer. They have such a pretty backyard with trees, a garden, flowers, and now a bird feeder. Bailey loved to watch the birds from the window and say, "Birrr!" We were all really surprised how many birds it brought, even a little family of quail.

The wind really kicked up!

Bathroom Remodel, Finally.

2011-09-24T14:11:00.000-07:00

I have been asking my mom if I could take down the wallpaper in the bathroom for past 15 years. I've been threatening her that one day she'd come home and it would all be gone. That never happened. She actually let me take it down! She just said, "By the way, anytime you want to the take the wallpaper down, do it." Yes! It only took about an hour. Here's what it looked like.

My parents are now in the process of getting new everything. Finally! Can you believe those globe lights!?! They are original to the house, circa 1970.

July 6, 2011: Las Vegas Trip

2011-09-24T14:01:00.000-07:00

During our trip to St. George we decided to take a last minute, quick trip to Las Vegas. It all started when we were watching "Pawn Stars" and thought, "We should go there!" So we did. I researched all the fun, free, kid things to do before leaving and planned it all out. Then we bought a $15 stroller at WalMart (probably the best purchase of the entire trip) and headed out.

First stop was the Pawn Shop, we thought since we got there early we might be able to get in. Nope, the line was already wrapped around the side and they said it would be an hour wait until they were done taping a show. That wouldn't work with a baby, so I just snapped a photo through the glass door and we left.

Next up was lunch and shopping at Caesar's Palace and then the gardens and aquarium at the Mirage.

We walked down the strip to the Flamingo and saw the waterfalls, flamingos, and huge goldfish.

Then we walked down to the M&M World, I thought I was going to pass out from heat exhaustion. I don't think I will ever walk the strip in the middle of the day in July. Bailey did great though, we kept giving her cold water and snacks and loading up the sun screen. We cooled off at the exhibit then headed out again on the strip.

Last on our list of fun kid things was the Lion exhibit at the MGM Grand. I didn't even know this existed! Lions are Bailey's favorite animals, it was her first animal sound too, so we saved the best for last. This exhibit has glass walls and then a glass walk through to see the lions from below. Bailey growled the entire time!

We were able to walk back to Caesar's Palace by going through the hotels on the other side of the street. Thank heavens. We saw the Bellagio fountains, ate dinner at the Cheesecake Factory and I even got to step in H&M for a few minutes. Bailey didn't nap the entire time and conked out as soon as we got home, and so did we.

July 4, 2011: Splash Pad!

2011-09-24T13:15:00.000-07:00

This is the new splash pad in downtown St. George. Bailey loved it! We first went on Independence Day just in our regular clothes. We didn't know if it was something to wear swim suites to, well, yep, it was! We came again more prepared. There's river/sandstone rocks all over to match the landscape, waterfalls, stairs with water and spouts, and a fountain. Perfect place for babies and toddlers!

There's even a new carousel! How fun!

And now for the pool. We got Bailey a little bumble bee floaty, but she liked "swimming" with us more and blowing bubbles under the water.

July 4, 2011: Independence Day in St. George

2011-09-24T12:58:00.000-07:00

The three of us went to St. George for almost a week over the 4th of July. It was so much fun to have a mini vacation just the three of us. We stayed in the Thompson's condo and relaxed in the pool, visited the new splash pad downtown, saw a few fireworks, slept, ate, slept some more, watched TV and even took a quick day trip to Vegas!

On Monday, the actual 4th of July, we strolled around the city festival. There were a lot of craft booths, fair games and rides, and food. Non of which we participated in. We just looked around and let Bailey play in the grass.

Bailey loved putting Mark's hat on, silly girl.

We made our own fun at the condo: a play fort and a new seat for Bailey to watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse in.

This girl even started STANDING on her own while we were there and took her first steps!

(14 months)

As I was taking photos of Bailey just playing, I said, "Bailey, say cheese!" and she stopped and looked at the camera and smiled and tried to say cheese. Now if only she would do that every time...

The Rest of June 2011

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The rest of June was a great as the first of June. Grandpa's funeral brought everyone home again and we had fun in the pool and hanging out. I haven't seen this much of family in over a year! Here's what we did:

More Pool Time with Owen!

This little man was the complete opposite of Bailey in the pool. Climbing all over, jumping in and out, he was all over the place! My parents also got the kids little chairs to sit in. Again, they were the complete opposite. Owen sat in the chair for a few seconds and then he was off. Bailey could sit there all day, and if it weren't for snacks and naps she probably would!

Playtime in Grandma's living room - Grandma wasn't used to this at all.

Owen and Bailey also got to play with Uncle Mike and all his cool gadgets.

Now for some random photos of Bailey.

This girl loves phones, purses, bracelets, bows, and necklaces. This day we were going to the mall, how fitting!

Still into everything

We spent many days looking out of Grandma's window at the....

neighbor's cat.

Plus plenty of fun in the sun!

June 28, 2011: Grandpa's Hadley's Funeral

2011-09-11T21:19:00.000-07:00

My Grandpa Hadley finally got to be with his sweet wife, Florence, again this past June. I have so many wonderful memories of my Grandparents that I will cherish forever. Here's his obituary:

Glen Waldram Hadley 1918 ~ 2011 NORTH OGDEN - Glen Waldram Hadley died Tuesday, June 22, 2011 in his hometown of North Ogden. He was 93 years old. Glen was born May 14, 1918 in North Ogden, Utah, a son of Samuel and Diana Waldram Hadley. He resided on the same property in North Ogden his entire life. Glen married Florence Elizabeth Blanch from Plain City, Utah on September 16, 1940 in the Salt Lake LDS Temple. Florence was Glen's high school sweetheart, and they enjoyed 63 wonderful years of marriage prior to her death on February 19, 2004. They raised a family of four boys on the Hadley property in North Ogden.

Glen was married with two sons when he entered the U.S. Navy during World War II. He served as a Radar Operator aboard a Troop Transport in the Amphibious Fleet. Shortly after the war ended, his ship was in the first convoy of ships to enter Tokyo Bay with occupation troops. His early career included working for Karl S. Storey CPA as a part-time accountant while attending Weber College. Thereafter, Glen worked as an office and credit manager for Bartlett Motor Co. for 20 years, and Thiokol Chemical Co. as a Traffic Analyst for three years. He then moved to Defense Depot Ogden where he retired after 20 years of service as Chief of the Traffic Section. Glen also served as a volunteer for America First Credit Union for 40 years. He has been an active member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints where he served in numerous capacities throughout his life, such as ward and stake clerk, Weber College bishopric, Stake High Counsel, and Ogden Temple ordinance worker along with his wife. Glen was a lifelong member of the North Ogden 1st Ward. Glen was a dedicated gardener in his yard and orchard, where he meticulously cared for his grounds throughout his life. He enjoyed playing golf with friends, children and grandchildren and even scored a hole-in-one on the Wolf Creek Golf Course. Glen was an avid Jazz fan. He traveled extensively for many years with Florence, and after her death he enjoyed traveling with family and friends. He was on the go for all but the last few months of his life. He is survived by his four sons, David G. (Joan) Hadley, Ogden; Thomas W. (Barbara) Hadley, Plain City; Michael S. (Doris) Hadley, Centerville; Phillip M. (Nancy) Hadley, Kaysville; 16 grandchildren and 23 great-grandchildren. Survivors also include two brothers; Ray (Blanch) Hadley of Idaho Falls, ID and Rich (Eunice) Hadley of North Ogden. A special thanks to the staff at Sandy's Restaurant, Emeritus Estates and Hospice for Utah for their genuine concern and care. Funeral services will be held Tuesday, June 28, 2011 at 11 a.m. at the North Ogden 1st Ward Chapel located at 626 East 2600 North in North Ogden, UT. Family and friends may call Monday evening, June 27th from 6 to 8 p.m. at Lindquist's North Ogden Mortuary, 2140 N. Washington Blvd. and on Tuesday from 9:45 to 10:45 a.m. at the North Ogden 1st Ward Chapel. Interment, North Ogden / Ben Lomond Cemetery, where Military Honors will be accorded by the Combined Veterans Honor Guard.

A tribute from America First Credit Union was also posted on their website, I love the last line:

Glen W. Hadley began his years of service for the credit union as field representative in 1966, when our assets were only $13 million, we had 21,000 members, and staffed only one branch.
Glen was appointed to the Credit Committee in 1968, and then served as Vice Chairman and Chairman of that committee, which is now known as the Loan Review Committee.
He will be remembered for his philosophy of people helping people. He emphasized over and over how he loved helping people who deserved it. He was very proud of his $500,000 loan portfolio, which had only two write-offs in 40 years. Glen retired in January of 2007, after 41 years of dedicated credit union service. He had the distinction of being the oldest volunteer. His wife, Florence, once said to Glen, "All you ever think about is the credit union." What a great tribute to his dedication, although she may not have meant it that way.
Glen leaves a legacy of warmth and kindness to all our members and staff he so unselfishly served. Glen always had a smiling face and a good word for everyone with whom he came in contact. We are fortunate that his son, Dave, now continues the family tradition and is serving as a volunteer on the Loan Review Committee.
Mr. Tom Connors, a member of the Board of Directors, wrote to Glen, "Your commitment and service on the Loan Review Committee is truly outstanding. Your concern for the care and welfare of our members' financial well-being is above reproach. Glen, your dedication, compassion, and unparalleled zeal have been large contributions to our credit union's success. Men of your character and voluntary spirit are few and far apart; therefore, I thank you for being such a wonderful example of mankind at its best."

His funeral was the most wonderful I've been to and the Military Honors and Veteran's Honor Guard were wonderful. I know my Granpa Hadley was an amazing person who served his country, family, and community.

Presentation of colors to the oldest living son, my Uncle David.

We drove by my Grandparent's house and the flag was at half staff, perfect.

We love you Grandpa!

June 19, 2011: Father's Day

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I was so happy to be able to spend Father's Day with both Mark and my dad. Two men I love the most. I love watching Mark read, play, feed, and bathe Bailey. He's becoming one great daddy! These are the photos from Father's Day. I gave Mark some cologne and a badminton/volleyball set (which we later returned) and my brother and sister went with me on a webcam for my dad - that's his "fake" excited face.

Watching the rain, we told her it would get her head wet.

One thing I really love watching Mark do is read to Bailey before bed. We have a routine of bath, bottle with books, prayer, and song. Sometimes I do it all, sometimes Mark,

but mostly we do them together. I love them more than anything!

Bubbly Baths and a Pool

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Bailey loves bubble baths! So we figured what could be better than blowing bubbles while she's in the bath? Nothing, she loved it. All that soapyness made it so she could catch the bubbles and actually play with them, every kid's dream come true!

............

If you know me, you know I love the pool and the sun. Do you know who loves the sun more than me? My mom. So she purchased this kiddie pool for the grand kids this summer and we definitely got some good use out of it!

Bailey loved watching the water fill up while her bath toys circled around in there. She was a little hesitant when we first put her in, she just sat there all quiet and cute. Then she splashed! From that day on whenever she saw the pool on the lawn she would point and say, "Pool" and want to get in.We had a lot of fun days in that pool.

June 11, 2011: My Birthday

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Shortly after Bailey's birthday celebration, it was my birthday! 27th if you were wondering. My parents gave Mark and I some money and told us to spend the weekend in Park City - just us and they would babysit Bailey. What a great gift! Mark and I headed up on Friday and started strolling main street. I told Mark I wanted to do these things: eat a great steak, get ice cream, get chocolate, get room service, and go shopping. Ha, ha! Tall order! Here's what we actually did.

Got a great steak.

It still hurts a little thinking about what we paid for this meal, almost as much as the hotel room...(just breathe) It was one of those "We'll only do this once" events. Good thing it was the best steak I've ever eaten. Oh, I should mention all that came with the meal was a small bread loaf and a huge steak, we shared a side order of mashed potatoes.

Got chocolate! Mmmm, Bear Paws! Trust me, after that steak I DID NOT want any ice cream or room service, I could barely muster up the room to fit in a few bites of chocolate.

Classic Park City photos

On Saturday we went shopping at the outlets and then headed home. We skipped out on going to a movie cause we missed our little Bailey so much! And I'm pretty sure I had a sinus infection. Besides, my parents had this great cake waiting for us. Great birthday! (minus the sinus infection)

I totally forgot to mention that Mark surprised me with a pedicure gift certificate. He told me to get his sunglasses out of the glove box and I found this, what a sweetie.

June 4, 2011: Bailey's Birthday Party!

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The Girl

Bailey turned 1 on May 9th, but since Mark was still in Idaho finishing finals we waited until June to celebrate. We were able to have most of our family members on both sides come and enjoy the day with us, which was absolutely wonderful! I took tons of photos, so here's a little photo story of Bailey's big day:

The Food and Decorations

Allie and I made tissue paper pom poms and streamers, I made the cupcakes and Bailey's cake, and my mom, Allie and I made a pasta salad, Asian salad, watermelon, and we got big sub sandwiches catered. We also had a huge duck pinata, Bailey LOVES ducks!

The People

From the Hadley side we had Mike and Doris (Grandpa and Grandma), Allie and Owen, and David and Joan - my uncle and aunt.

From the Thompson side we had Craig and Carol (Papa and Nana), Marcie, Carrie, the Sly family: Holly, James, Shaylee, Ammon, Callie, Hyrum, Emma, and Alyana; Leslie and her two daughters Addie and Aurora, and Rick and Robin - Mark's uncle and aunt. That makes 26 people to feed and entertain, full house!

The Gifts

Bailey was so lucky to get so many wonderful gifts from friends and family. She received a few dresses, stuffed animals, puzzles, a doll stroller, and fun wooden toys. (Thanks Allie for taking these!)

That's her "excited face"

The Cake

I made Bailey's birthday cake, flowers and all. It was a chocolate cake with butter cream frosting, yum! She had never had anything sweet like this before so I was really interested in how she'd like it, and we all guessed how she'd eat it. Well, we all guessed right. She just carefully picked and poked at it. I showed her how to eat it and gave her a handful and she gained some confidence. She also was very nice and shared some of it with her cousins Addie and Emma and Aunt Marcie. Once we gave her a fork she was all into it.

The Fun

I knew there would be more kids at Bailey's party that might get a little bored just watching her open gifts and eat cake. So I decided to get a pinata for them to bust open! All of Bailey's cousins love candy, and what kid wouldn't want to bust open a paper mache duck to get it? They all took turns going from youngest to oldest. Cute little Alayna took a little hit and by the time it got to Callie and Ammon it was open. Mark tied it back together so they could all take a few more hits, then he threw the candy into the field for them to find. Bailey continued to eat her cake on the grass, she didn't even get that messy!

All in all it was a great (kind of exhausting) day! We sure love this little girl!

June 1, 2011: Zoo Round Two

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While Owen and Allie were in town for Bailey's birthday we hit up the Hogle Zoo. It was the second time for Bailey and I, but still lots of fun! I think the favorites this time were the elephants, giraffes, and of course the tigers. By this time in June Bailey could make a lion and tiger sound - a deep throat kind of growl. While we were at the zoo she pointed to the tiger and growled. But she would also make that sound every time I greeted her in the morning or other people at the store, I would just say, "Oh!? Are you a Lion?!" and she'd do it again. Funny girl.

They also have dinosaurs at the Hogle Zoo!

This is Bailey's "Excited Face" all you have to say is, "Bailey, are you excited?" and she squeezes her hands in fists, holds her breath, shakes a little and grins. She loves performing it. This time I had her do while she ate her ice cream.

In my family, if you're not weird your not normal.

Souvenirs from Grandma!

Ahhh, great day at the zoo!

May 31, 2011: Owen Came to Town

2011-07-30T16:08:00.000-07:00

At the end of May, Owen and Bailey came to town to help celebrate Bailey's 1st birthday. They had lots of fun playing together...well, once Bailey warmed up to him. They ate together, bathed together, played outside, and even went to the zoo! We wish Owen and Allie could come every day!

Rewind: May 2011

2011-07-29T16:25:00.000-07:00

I'm slowly but surely catching up... here's what happened in May!

Bailey turned 1!

I already posted about this here, and here, but if you remember we didn’t have a birthday party until Mark came to Utah in June - an entire post for her party to come. Here are some fun things she did in the month of May:

Loved being outside and getting used to the grass

She started playing with her food and hair at the same time

We took her to the park to swing on swings for the first time, we all enjoyed it

Whenever she found a pair of glasses, she put them on

Climbed Grandma's stairs all by herself
Danced whenever she heard music
Splashed in the tub when I said "splash"
Got used to Grandma and Grandpa taking care of her
Away from daddy for the longest time: 1 month, away from mamma for the longest time: 12 hours
Loved the bath after a few weeks of "scared out of her mind baths"
Started to say no like this: "na, na, na, na, na"
Said "Ooooooo" to new things she discovered
Laughed whenever I blew kisses to her right before closing the door for bedtime
Pointed to her nose when I started singing "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes"
Made lion and tiger sounds by growling
She was still...quiet and shy in public, crawling, sleeping 12 hours at night and taking 2 naps, mauled with hugs and kisses daily

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Beehive Bazaar

This was my second jewelry show during my stay in Utah. I’ve done this one twice before with great sales so I was excited to redeem myself from the bust of the Thanksgiving Point event. I made several trips back and forth to Provo and even stayed all day the last day and had a “4 Hour Sale” the last 4 hours of the show and gave everyone a discount. I had a lot of fun talking to people and admiring other artist’s works. There are so many unique handmade things there and the best part is trading afterward!

I traded jewelry for 3 headbands and a hair clip for Bailey, 2 headbands for me, a fabric banner, chocolate, cotton candy… and that’s all I can remember. I get asked a lot if I made the hair thing I’m wearing at the time, and my reply is always the same, “I traded for it”. Do you have anything you want to trade for jewelry?

My Booth

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Mother’s Day

Bailey was born on Mother’s day last year, perfect gift. This year I also got some nice gifts in return for 9 months of pregnancy, 4 days of labor, 2 hours of pushing, hemorrhoids, 8 months of nursing, 8 months of waking up at least twice a night, and a lot of excess, doughy, stretched out skin on my abdomen. My parents gave me a great cookbook, "Our Best Bites" and a book of poetry, and Mark gave me a new camera lens. Well, I gave it to me and then told Mark he didn’t need to get me anything (that's how a lot of gifts work around here). I love this new lens; it’s a Canon 50mm, F1.4 lens. The F1.4 means I can take faster indoor photographs with a wider aperture, letting in more light, and it’s also a very shallow depth of field for more artsy looking photos. Needless to say I’ve pretty much had my camera attached my to arm ever since May.
We had a great lunch/dinner at my house on Mother's Day then Bailey and I drove down to Pleasant Grove and had a family dinner with Mark's family. Mark was still in Moscow.

I'm forever grateful to be the mother of this little girl.

New Lens photos, see the shallow depth of field? That means only a few centimeters are in focus then the rest is not.

Better seen in this photo, my eyes are in focus but it starts to get really soft as parts of my face get closer and farther away from the lens. The only light source was a small lamp in a dark room!

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Hogle Zoo

I was so excited when my friend Angela invited me to go to the zoo with her and her little boy, Cooper! Angela and I taught school together and our pregnancies overlapped while we were teaching. I’m so grateful I can be a mom and do fun mom things like this. I also hadn’t been to the Hogle Zoo in about 9 years. We had lots of fun!

Baby elephant, Zuri!

When we got home all Bailey wanted to do was play with her animal toys.

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Gardner Village

My mom, my sister, and I have always liked going to Gardner Village in South Jordan. It’s a little vintagy, village place where old houses and barns have been turned into shops. So we went and strolled around a few of the shops. Our favorite was the toy shop, before we would have passed it up, but now we have to stop and see all the cute toys for the kiddos. Bailey loved it! And of course we had to drool over all the cute home decor, furniture, pillows and quilts. I dream of the day we buy a house, and then I dream of the day when I can redecorate!

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Memorial Day

Mark arrived in Utah the week before Memorial Day so we spent the 3 day weekend in St. George with some of his family. Mark’s parents have a condo there so we always have a place to stay.

We had fun with the family in the pool on Saturday. Then Mark and I went on a date to Red Robin and saw Pirates of the Caribbean 3D Saturday night – first date in 3 months!

On Sunday we went to church, then Carrie, Mark, Bailey, and I walked around the temple grounds, and then stumbled upon Brigham Young’s summer house and took a tour.

We celebrated Leslie's birthday, and went on walks around the condo complex.

Then on Monday we went for a hike around Snow Canyon. This was kinda hard cause we didn’t bring a carrier or anything so we had to take turns holding Bailey. Then we went home Monday afternoon. Fun trip!

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Sunday Snapshots

5 - 1 - 2011
I let Bailey look through the ads with me

Once she found this photo of her cousin, Owen, she pointed to it every chance she could!

5 - 15 - 2011
Dinner at Uncle Bob's (Mark's Grandpa's house). We eat here a few Sunday's a month during the summer and always play on the "Great Lawn"

5 - 22 - 2011
This Sunday we took a walk on the Lagoon Trail, you can see the animals from the trial that Lagoon has as part of their amusement park. Rusty the Elk is my dad's favorite, Bailey liked him too.

I love this house! It's part of the historic district of Farmington.

Found this gem in the Sunday ads. Come join us in Moscow for an "adventure" filled vacation! Ha Ha! I couldn't believe it when I saw it!

Rewind: April 2011

2011-06-26T14:47:00.000-07:00

More catch up, April seems like forever ago but here's what we did:

Bailey turned 11 months

This girl is growing up way too fast! Here are some fun firsts that happened in April:

She could say more, mama, dadee and tries to say duckie, hot dog, baby, bunnny - her favorite toy she got for Easter.
Mimicked me a lot - brushing hair, putting toys in and out of things. One time I showed her how to put something small in a cup then she could shake it to make a sound. She loved it! Now tries to put everything into cups.

Plays hide and seek with us and gets excited when we say "I'm gunna to get you!"

Loves playing with dad and points to him and says "Dadee!"

She also...

Clapped when excited, she would crawl a few feet, then clap, then crawl, then clap

For some reason stopped liking baths for a while and SCREAMED every time

Eats everything we eat for dinner and loves ravioli, mac and cheese, grapes, and bananas

Clapped on command or when I started to say "Patty Cake"

Dances to the "Hot Dog Song" on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse

One morning Mark and I both went to get her after a nap (that doesn't happen much), she was standing up and when she saw both of us she started clapping her hands over her head and said, "Ooooooh!" We laughed so hard!

We sure love this little girl!

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12 Month Well Baby Check-up

Weight 19 lbs, 23%
(was 17.1lbs 15% at 9 months, 27% at 6 months, 45% at 4 months)

Height 27.5in, 13%

(was 27.3in 31% at 9 months, 69% at 6 months, 76% at 4 months)

I knew we were going to Utah before Bailey turned 12 months so I had to bring her in before we left. Checkups have never gone well with Bailey. She gets really nervous and scared and starts screaming when the nurse and doctor touch her. We were able to somewhat get a head circumference, and the height by me laying her down and then putting some of my body weight on top of her too - like I was still holding her but not.

Then we attempted to weigh her. What a nightmare, she hadn't screamed like that in a long time. She was naked and always trying to roll off the baby scale, but it's one of those metal old fashioned ones that if she did roll off she'd fall 4 feet. So we gave up and did the weigh me, weigh the both of us, then subtract. So who knows how accurate that is.

I got her to calm down a little for Dr. Ruby while he checked her ears and eyes by playing home videos on the camera and letting her hold it. I also brought her bunny and her "snuggles" for comfort.

After all that we topped of the appointment with some shots. Poor baby!

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Bunco

Our fun little Bunco group

I decided to volunteer to host Bunco in April with my friend Ashley F. I love Bunco! We all get together, eat some snacks/treats, play the game then tally up the points and give out prizes! We came up with the theme "Colorific" so everything was pink, yellow, and green, and you prize to give away had to be those colors too. I brought jewelry of course. Ashley did great with the decorations and setting up her apartment and we both helped with the food. So fun!

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Easter

We didn't do much for Easter, in fact, we really didn't do anything at all. It happened to fall on a busy week for the both of us. Luckily I won an Easter basket and candy at Bunco (thanks Julie) and Bailey loved it! I gave Bailey her Easter present early cause I just couldn't wait - the tan bunny and she loves it.

I do plan on making some fun family traditions for Easter when Bailey and our future kids get older. Hiding Easter baskets, coloring eggs, and of course explaining the meaning of Easter.

Here's the "Sunday Snapshot" for Easter Sunday, I was busy trying to pack for the move to Utah, and Bailey was so nice to help. I left the next day.

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Melba - Halfway There

Aunt Allie gave Bailey a little present, bubbles and big girl band aids!

Ahhh, Melba Idaho, that's halfway from Moscow, ID to Centerville, UT. I left Moscow on April 25th, Mark didn't leave until May 22nd, we came to Utah for the summer for Mark to do an internship with his uncle in Salt Lake City. I left early with Bailey to do some jewelry shows in Utah in hopes to make some money for us. I wasn't too worried about traveling with Bailey, she's always been pretty good on road trips, and thanks to a last minute, overnight shipped DVD player, it was a breeze!

It took about 8 hours, but it really flew by, whenever Bailey was cranky I just plugged in the player. I listened and sang to GLEE soundtracks the entire way. Perfect. (thanks Ashley)

We spent 2 days with the Zeyers. Bailey was, um, really scared of her cousin Owen at first. She cried every time he got within her "personal space" and bolted for me. But by the end of our stay and a couple baths together she didn't seem to mind him too much. We had lots of fun! Then I made my way onto Centerville, shorter drive - 6 hours, but really boring.

Roasting Easter Peeps in the wood burning stove, YUM!

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Thanksgiving Point and the Tulip Festival

This was my first jewelry show back in Utah, it was one I hadn't done before, but I had been to the Tulip Festival before. When I went to the festival a few years ago was very pretty, it seemed like a great attraction and a lot of people would be there. Nope. This was pretty much a complete bust.

The week before and the week after was gorgeous weather, but my week it rained, snowed, hailed, and was about 40* as the high. I set up my booth on Friday morning and went home a few hours later, my feet were numb! Luckily I have an "over prepared" husband and there was a winter coat and gloves in the car. Saturday was about the same but I came with my mom's winter boots on. This was so different from how I expected it to go. I didn't even make my money back from what I paid to be in the show, ahhh shucks! I kept thinking that I've done super good at other shows and it was probably my turn to have a lemon. Oh well, you win some and lose some right?

Wind beaten hair and delicious hot chocolate

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Sunday Snapshots

Sunday Snapshot 4-3-201: General Conference

Sunday Snapshot 4-10-2011

My first attempt at the trendy "repourposing" something. I found some tank tops at Old Navy for like $2.00 so I made a dress and hair thing for Bailey with one. Now we can be matchy matchy!

Rewind: March 2011

2011-05-20T22:58:00.000-07:00

Playing a little catch up now just to do some documenting. Here's what happened in March:

Bailey turned 10 months

Here's our monthly photoshoot, I couldn't get her to sit and look and smile anymore, so I just let her play. I love that she's in her onesie, it reminds me that she's still my little baby!

Here are some of the fun things she did
I tamed the mohawk, finally! Her top hair got long enough to either comb over and clip it with a barrette, or make a little ponytail, this photo has a few fly aways from her nap

Could bite through cookies, hold a bottle, got a new sippie cup with a straw, and self feeding everything else

Started walking around the furniture, especially our new storage ottoman that replaced the coffee table (I LOVE the ottoman, all the toys are put away and no one would even know a baby lives here!)

Loved watching the water fill up in the tub and squealed everytime

Loved the indoor play place

Pointed to everything

Found some new toys

Her sleeping routine was still 12 hours at night and two naps in the day. I would hum her a song and give her her "snuggle", then I'd lay in her crib. She would then rub her face in her "snuggle" and fall right to sleep. Then started trying to get her snuggle out of her crib...

Could say mama, dada, and baba (bottle)

She really started to understand words, I would say one of her toys and she would go get it
Played hide and seek with us - we'd go hide and call for her and she'd come find us then race back to the living room
We sure love this little girl!

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Where we live

This was one of the first days that it was actually warm in Moscow so we went for a walk. Don't worry, the warmth didn't last long, but at least you get to see the beautiful view from our apartment! Right now all that is super green and even more beautful.

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Somewhere I saw a self a portrait project, it talked about how it's good to also document YOU along with your kids. As you can see, we have a lot of photos of Bailey and not much of Mark and I so I thought I'd try it. Here's how it turned out.

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UCreate Giveaway

In March I did a giveaway on a popular DIY craft blog called UCreate. I was so excited to do something like this, it was a first for me. I offered to give a $50.00 gift certificate to one lucky winner and a 20% discount coupon code to everyone for the last two weeks of March. This ended up in a flood of orders, it was crazy! Lots of really late nights and super productive naptimes.

In the end I had record sales for any month on Etsy, what a blessing. I tried to link up the blog post so you could see it, but it doesn't work anymore, it just talked about me and my business, the products, and had some photos. You should just go check out Ucreate anyway and see what a great blog it is!

Bailey helped with the packing and shipping

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Day Trip to Spokane

Mark had his Spring Break in March, an entire week off of school! What did we do? Well Mark studied every day which is what all 1st year law students do, but on Saturday we took a day trip to Spokane. We pretty much just went shopping at a few malls - yes, a few malls - then went out to dinner to Chili's. I was so excited to go shopping somewhere other than Ross and Old Navy. My favorites were GAP: super good baby sale, and Nordstrom Rack: super good prices, of course.

These were the only photos we took, awesome right?

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Relief Society Birthday

Relief Society was organized March 17, 1842 so our ward had a Relief Society Birthday party to celebrate. We had three stations: card making, floral arranging, and cake decorating, then a presentation. I'm on the Enrichment Committee so I offered to do the cake decorating station. I taught our sisters how to fill a bag of frosting the easy way, how to do a sprial top, fluffy rosette top, roll sprinkles, drop flowers, leaves, and pearls.

It was fun for me to get back into cake decorating and do something other than jewelry - but remember this was during the most busy time for jewelry so it was fun, but also quite stressful. Somehow I managed to bake all the cupcakes, make like 12 batches of frosting, and premake all the little flowers. It was a lot of work, but everyone had a good time and they turned out really cute!

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The last two Sunday Snapshots in March

Sunday snapshot 3-20-2011

Sunday Snapshot 3-27-2011

I have loved this little skirt on Bailey and this is the last time she wore it! It was pretty tight on her this time around so I didn't bring it to Utah with me for the summer. I'm glad I got some cute photos of her in it for the last time!

Birthday Day Pictures

2011-05-14T21:02:00.000-07:00

BEWARE: PHOTO OVERLOAD

As mentioned before, it was Bailey's Birthday on Monday and we didn't have a party. We'll have a party when Mark comes to Utah and all our family is in town the first week of June. And let me just tell you, I'm trying to hold back the excitement of putting on a birthday party for my little girl! I mean isn't this what I was born to do?

Anyway, I really felt like doing something on her real birthday, so I photographed the entire day. Here's what we did on her special day:

HELPED MOM WITH MAKEUP

LUNCH

with a Birthday hat

(yes, I know I skipped breakfast, that's becuase my mom let me sleep in after a long weekend!)

BATH

WATCHING

PLAYTIME

trying to put her headband back on

BOOKS

NAPTIME

DINNER (real milk for the first time)

BIRTHDAY SHOPPING OUTING

can you believe that's her one year ago!?

BIRTHDAY SHOPPING AT TARGET

I thought I'd just let her pick out anything, ended up with bubbles and some clothes

PRESENTS

we couldn't wait so grandma gave her a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse book that plays the theme song and grandpa gave her a set of Mickey and Minnie keys

she liked the box and bow a little more at first

THE BIRTHDAY CARD

it plays the "Hot Dog" song and she started dancing

Ok, so if you're a mom, you know that most of this really isn't different than any other day!

And I love it!

Happy Birthday Bailey!

2011-05-09T14:58:00.000-07:00

Today is Bailey's 1st Birthday! I can't believe I have a little toddler now instead of a tiny baby. I've had a lot of "this time last year" moments throughout the week and read my delivery story again found here. Funny thing is I just cleaned up the Beehive Bazaar jewelry booth on Saturday and was way stressed out all week - just like last year.

Tomorrow I'll post what we did today. I've been photographing the entire day! We miss our daddy and will have an official party when he comes to Utah and celebrate with the rest of our families as well - probably in June.

We love you Bailey! Here's a look back, notice how I haven't been able to get a picture of her just sitting there looking at the camera since February. She's into everything!

September 2009-May 2010

May 9, 2010

June 2010

July 2010

August 2010

September 2010

October 2010

November 2010

December 2010

January 2011

February 2011

March 2011

April 2011

May 2011

For My Marky

2011-05-08T22:25:00.000-07:00

Mark and I are away from each other for an entire month while he's finishing finals in Idaho and I'm doing jewelry shows in Utah. Here are some videos for my Marky - I love you so much and miss you!

Good thing I finally figured out how to do this!

Sunday Snapshot 3.6.2011 and 3.13.2011

2011-04-10T13:30:00.000-07:00

I don't know about you, but we like to get comfy on Sundays after church.

There must have something REALLY interesting on TV.

Bailey kinda looks like a boy in these photos, but we know she's all girl!

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Sunday Snapshot 3.16.2011

Just hangin' out with dad

New Products and Photos for Tom Design

2011-03-27T17:13:00.000-07:00

I like to think that I have excuses for not keeping my blog up to date. It could be that I'm lazy and sit around all day. Or it could be that I'm taking care of a baby and love to get down on my hands and knees and play with her instead of sit at a computer. Or it could be that there's laundry, cleaning, groceries, and dinners to be made. OR it could be that I'm trying to run a small business and need to finally make some new products. Yep, I think it's the last three. Sometimes I dream of sitting around all day, and one of these days I will!

I had the same products for a few years and needed to start some new things. Februray was FULL of coming up with new designs, ordering supplies, making jewelry, taking new photos, editing, and uploading to Etsy. Plus filling custom bride orders! Whew.

I'm super excited about these new pieces, some have true vintage components from the 1930's and 1940's and I've started using a few 16k gold parts.

I really like my new style of photography with my jewelry. Fun backgrounds, setting up an outfit for necklaces, and including some props like plates, cups, and books. I think it all really enhances the jewelry and my style.

Setting up the shots for necklaces was my favorite part. I pulled out my clothes, made an outfit, and set up the background. It was like getting dressed for the day! I don't always do that. It was so fun to play designer, (and hand model here and there). What do you think?

Sunday Snapshot 2.20.11 and 2.27.2011

2011-03-26T23:18:00.000-07:00

Sunday Snapshot for 2.20.11.

We gave rockin' talks in church this day. Glad that's over.

Would you belive me if I told you it's getting harder for me take sitting portraits of her? Busy little girl.

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Sunday Snapshot for 2.27.11
She still loves those blinds.

We had the missionaries over for dinner this day, here are my Lion House Rolls. Mmmm
We had salad, rolls, baked potatoes, and slow cooked roast beef. That's a pretty standard Sunday dinner.

Coeur D'Alene

2011-03-26T22:49:00.000-07:00

Mark had President's Day off of school so we decided to spend the day in Coeur d'Alene. It's a little resort town with a lake about an hour and half away from Moscow. The first thing we did was walk around the dock by the Coeur d'Alene Resort Hotel. It was sunny but FREEZING cold and windy - the water was even iced over in some places!

Bailey hates to have her hands covered or even touched and we had been outside for quite a while so we knew for her sake we needed to get inside. We found a mall across the street and warmed right up. While we were there we found a baby snowsuit 75% off that had hand flaps! Perfect. The size was 24 months so it was a little big, okay it was huge and we couldn't help but laugh! It will fit her next year.

Why is she in the trunk? Nowhere else to change a diaper...oooh cold!

After roaming the mall for a bit we ate lunch at a restaurant I don't even remember the name of. I do remember it was good, really good - teryaki chicken burgers. While at this restaurant we learned that Bailey can wave which I have video of, not pictures. Sorry.

After lunch we went for little hike by the lake that eventually led to the shore line, and then for a drive around the lake. What a pretty place! I kept telling Mark that we should come back in the summer when it's actually warm and we can be outside for longer than 20 minutes.

For the drive home we stopped at an ice cream shoppe for dinner. Yes, ice cream for dinner. Thank goodness for heated seats. Fun day!

Valentine's Day

2011-03-23T17:21:00.000-07:00

Valentine's Day started off with a lot of little surprises for Mark! I cut out 20 little hearts and wrote things I loved about him on them, then hid them throughout the apartment so he would find all 20 before he got to school. I'm so cute right? Ha! Never done something like this, if you know me, I'm not this mushy all the time.

Sadly, Mark is not mushy at all and didn't do anything for me on Valentine's Day. Bummer. In his defense I had called him in January from Old Navy and told him I was buying our Valentine's gifts - they were having a huge sale and I had to find some reason for buying the items in my cart! So I did receive two tops and some fun tights from him, he got two shirts from me, and Bailey got some larger sized clothes that she needed anyway. Perfect.

I made Parmesan Chicken for dinner, a "nicer" meal and Bailey and I got to hang out with each other all day! Ok, that last part isn't different from any other day.

All of our family members also got little Valentine Surprises! I printed out the Valentine card above and sent them out through the mail. It was fun to hear their reactions, who doesn't like getting something special in the mail?

On Friday of that week Mark redeemed himself and took me out dinner here in Moscow.

Sunday Snapshot 2.13.2011

2011-03-20T18:24:00.000-07:00

I've decided to do something new, the Sunday Snapshot! Not my original idea, I saw it on another blog somewhere. It's where you just upload a few photos from that Sunday. I feel like I can handle that, sometimes I get overwhelmed with this blogging thing.
Since I love it when Bailey is all dressed up from church, the Sunday Snapshot will most likely always be her in her dress. I've been taking the Sunday Snapshot photos since February 13th, so here's that day. This was when she was just learning how to stand!

9 Month Update

2011-03-13T23:53:00.000-07:00

In February Bailey turned 9 months, here's our monthly photoshoot, her 9 month check up stats, and some fun things she did.

Like I said before, these photoshoots don't always work out (she hit herself with the ceramic heart)

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9 Month Checkup Stats:

Weight 17.1lbs 15% (was 27% at 6 months, 45% at 4 months)

Height 27.3in 31% (was 69% at 6 months, 76% at 4 months)

She's consistently going down in percentile, but she's healthy. I got to her appointment, whipped out the camera and found that the battery was dead, I didn't even have my phone, bummer! I was able to squeeze these two photos out though. It went about the same as the 6 month appointment - started screaming once her bare bum hit the crinkle paper.

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Fun Things

Started standing up to things, learned how to fall down

Waving back to us and at herself in the mirror, she loves her reflection. That's her excited face down below

Starting to not like baby foods (especially green beans) and yells for people food

Fed herself spaghetti and peas – I’m slowly being okay with her hands, arms, face, floor and chair getting covered in food

Loves Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and dances/bounces when the “Hot Dog” song comes on

Loves bath time, the remote, and has a new found love of binkies - she hated them from 2-8 months

Gets into EVERYTHING....and I let her

Loves her crib and wakes up talking to herself

I can clip her hair up so her mohawk looks like a little pony tail. She doesn't normally wear shoes but I put them on her and did her hair, I couldn't believe how old she looked! Where did my baby go?

Other Things:

6 teeth all the way in

Crawls with things in her hands sliding them along the floor

Crawls with one leg up using her foot instead of knee – precursor to walking?

Pulls my hands away from covering my face when I say Peekaboo

Babbles a lot and can say da, ma, ca, ba, go, ga, but doesn’t quite associate items to them

Plays chase with mom and dad – we get down and crawl around with her, so much fun!

Mark and I hide under blankets and say “Where’s mama/dadda?” then she lifts up the blanket to find us and giggles and squeals, we LOVE playing with her!

Stay tuned for more.

January 2011

2011-02-24T15:47:00.000-08:00

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.

December 2010

2011-02-13T21:24:00.000-08:00

What!?! Am I actually posting again? That's right, time to catch up on December 2010

Our Miss Bailey turned 7 months during December, here's our monthly photo shoot.

Sometimes they don't always work out how I want them

Bottom teeth came through, accompanied with a lot of crying and baby Tylenol

Eating all the baby foods, some bread

She's the same size as Owen who was 5 months, I gave them those tooth brushes for Christmas

Better at reach/crawling, it looked more like the worm with a belly flop, started to rock on knees, still got stuck under and around things

Sat up better

Loved Grandma’s snow globe, kitchen items, ladle, spoons, old cell phone, and tin with beads – we had to get creative during the stay in Utah

Sat in a booster seat at a restaurant – what a big girl!

Loved the wrapping paper at Christmas

Was away from mom for the longest period of time ever: 8 hours, I almost went nuts

Was away from dad for the longest period of time ever: 2 weeks, she didn’t know him when he came but warmed right up!

Didn't like baths at Grandma's house for some reason until the last two weeks

Still liked being naked!

Used mom's make-up bag as a toy box, we do this every day together now...well every day I put on make-up

Met Santa for the 1st time at our ward Christmas party in Moscow

She also...

Fed herself for the 1st time

Started weaning with daddy’s help

Mohawk still stoods straight up on its own

Played in our bed with us every morning, loved that

Still sleeping 12 hours, waking once to eat, 3 naps

Wanted (and still does) whatever I last touched

Still likes strings on things and anything she can pull on like my hair, or her own hair

This was probably the most developmental month so far. She did so many fun things, we love watching her grow!

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Home

I went to bed at 2:00am, Bailey woke up at 3:00am, left the house at 6:30am for our flight!

As you may have guessed, I went home for Christmas a little early. I flew in December 4th with my friend Ashley and her baby Abby - her family lives in Salt Lake. They made the flight so much better for me and Bailey! Mark drove in December 18th after law finals, and we all drove back together January 2nd. It was really nice for that month; we had plenty of baby sitters and lots of fun! Here’s what we did:

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Jewelry Round 2

I decided that I should bring ALL of my jewelry supplies with me on the plane as a carry on – besides a baby and diaper bag - because since I updated my online Etsy shop I was getting a lot of orders and didn’t want to miss out on any good opportunities for us to actually have some income. IT’S A GOOD THING I DID. I spent those two weeks without Mark in my parent’s basement at a card table making jewelry, sending e-mails, and waiting in tremendously long lines at the post office. My parents watched Bailey during all of this and I was incredibly grateful for that, I couldn’t have done it all without their help. Orders still came in after Mark arrived but it slowed down since it was getting close to Christmas. I had record sales for any month ever (or total year) on Etsy and made enough to pay for Christmas and two months of living expenses for us. What a blessing. I’m so grateful that I can do this for my family and help us stay out of debt, I’m grateful for all the wonderful customers and people who have supported me through this – especially Bailey and Mark. Sometimes I just don’t get to spend the time I want to with them. Now I know what it can be like with online sales and I look forward to expanding my shop!

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Friends

Besides jewelry, I got to spend time with Centerville friends going out to eat, playing with my friends and their babies from teaching school, and hanging out with my parents while Mark was finishing finals. These little babies have grown so much, and we finally have a picture with Samuel Gadd! Remember the preggo pictures?

December 2010

May 2010

February 2010

Hanging out with my parents

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Family

Once Mark came it was full on family time - but our own little family time came first :) Mark got Bailey to know him again and then we went shopping, had dates going out to eat and movies, and more shopping. I loved spending all this time with Mark! We never get this kind of time together; Mark works so hard in school I know he enjoyed the time together just as much me.

Then we spent time with our families. With Mark’s family we had a Joseph Smith Birthday Party put on by Ben and Leslie, family dinners, game nights, I did family photos for the Jones’ and they did a few for us, and lunch at Ikea.

Can't not have a picture of this little doll! Camry

With my family we hung out, visited Grandpa at his nursing home, had Christmas Eve at my Grandpa Hadley’s (this might be the last year there and I was so happy we still got to go there this year), went out to eat, had one family dinner with EVERYONE there and spent New Year’s Eve playing the Wii which was my parents’ first time, so funny! My mom really got into her tennis swing and a few of us got bruises. We also went out to eat with some of Mark’s friends and visited his mission president, President Lewis. What a jammed packed holiday right!?!

Grandpa Hadley's home

I went into the basement of Grandpa's house where I used to play growing up. What a flood of memories! I wondered if the games we used to play were still under this bed... they sure were! We spent hours playing Hungry, Hungry Hippo and the car garage!

My mom sets a lovely table

It was New Year's Eve after all

Owen didn't really like the asparagus.

Hyrum showed us Owen's new tricks!

Allie and Hyrum opened presents on New Year's Eve when they came in since it was a Zeyer year for them

Owen seemed to like it.

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Christmas

Did you think I forgot Christmas Day?! We split the day up and had the morning with the Hadley’s and then from noon on with the Thompsons. I love Christmas, and it’s getting even better with Bailey here with us. I can’t wait until she can open presents on her own and get excited for Santa come.

Christmas at my house included me, Mark, Bailey, Mike Jr., Mike Sr.(dad), and Doris (mom)

My dad gave my mom a massage thingy

Bailey got blocks, and a music/learning table

Clinique goodies and a bathroom set for my new bathroom

There were a few more people at Mark's house: Craig, Carol, Marcie, Carrie, Rick, Hollie & James: Shaylee, Ammon, Callie, Hyrum, Emma, Alayna; Jake & Camille: Isaac, Eliza, Camry; Ben & Leslie: Addie, Aurora; Mark & Debbie: Bailey count 'em up...that's 25 of us in the living room!

The kids and grandkids are sending Craig and Carol on an Alaskan Cruise this spring! They were so surprised!

The little girls always get dresses from Carol and Marcie, they get so excited! So cute!

I love this picture, this is pretty much how it is Christmas Day!

Bailey's dresses

How many guys does it take to put on a hitch? hmmm 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Bailey and Alayna

Some of the girl cousins

I should mention that during our stay in Utah it snowed pretty bad one day. We all spent the night at the Thompson home except Carrie and James. There were 23 of us sleeping in that house!

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Quick Family Photos at the Jones' House
(Mark's not a fan of this one, he didn't know he was slouching)

Stay tuned, next Up: January 2011

November 2010

2011-01-24T00:04:00.000-08:00

Whoa, where did the time go!?! I always think that after a few months of non-blogging. Time just goes by way too fast and I seem to be always busy with something. But here’s what happened in NOVEMBER of 2010.

6 Months

6 month photo shoot with mom

Bailey turned 6 months! I keep her baby book up-to-date with everything she does and her new tricks every month but here are few of her milestones and tricks at 6 months (November 9, 2010):

Slept on tummy and moved around a lot at night – scary for me at first

Started all the vegetable baby foods and some fruits, she also threw a lot of them up

Cried when I left the room (and when her headband was around her eyes)

Figured out how to do a courtesy laugh, blow raspberries, and a “cheerleader pose” when she’s excited

Rolled to get around, scooted backwards and got stuck under chairs, tables, you name it

Self-soothed for naps

Sat up unassisted!

She loves books

and her excer-saucer mirror

She also...

Still slept 12 hours at night and would wake once to eat

Rolled during diaper changes
Grabbed noses and feet while eating

I loved the look on her face when I gave her a new toy – still do

One day I went shopping at Michaels and had a squeaky cart, she loved it! She talked and laughed back every time she heard a squeak

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Well Baby

Bailey had a 6 Month Well Baby Checkup, here were her stats:
Height: 26.5 inches 69% (25.3 inches 76% at 4 months)
Weight: 15.3 lbs 27% - I think this is due to all the throwing up in November (13.9 lbs 45% at 4 months)
Head Circumference: 16.5 inches 27% (16 inches 31% at 4 months)
All around a little smaller than her 4 month check up. Doctor said as long as the measurements are all going down together it's fine. I'm anxious to see what they will be at her 9 month.

Consoling after the weigh in

This was just after the heartbeat/lung check!

Consoling after the shots

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Birthday

Mark’s big 30 came and went on November 17th. We didn’t celebrate too much on this day because this was the day Bailey was REALLY sick. She threw up all day long; and it was really scary for me. She would throw up and her eyes would go back in her head because she was so tired. I sat there catching it all with rags sitting her up. All she wanted to do was sleep but I was so scared there was something really wrong with her so I held her all day and made sure she was breathing. We went to the doctor and he couldn’t find anything wrong with her. She was actually really happy at the doctor’s office, perfect right? I got home, fed her, and she threw that up all over dad! Happy Birthday! We stayed away from the foods she threw up for a while, but she hasn’t thrown up since November.

Bailey's "Happy Birthday" to Mark

We celebrated Mark’s birthday later by going out to eat in Pullman, WA – the next town over and going to Wal-Mart. Classy. I did however get to surprise Mark with a donut and candles on his real birthday after Bailey went to sleep – I told Mark I was going to the store for milk, sneaky, sneaky.

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Thanksgiving

Another celebration was Thanksgiving! We celebrated with our friends the Muirs – Alex, Ashley, and Abby. We ate at their apartment and I brought pumpkin dip, rolls, mashed potatoes, and pumpkin pie. Ashley made a great turkey, stuffing, corn, a yummy slushy drink, and pie as well. After dinner we relaxed and the babies played together. This was our first Thanksgiving away from our families – besides Mark’s mission - and we were happy to spend the day with our friends.

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Jewelry

I started getting my jewelry ready for the holiday shoppers in November. I made a goal to get my Etsy shop updated with all my color options of flower jewelry. This was a HUGE project. My shop had about 60 items listed; now it has over 200! I took over 800 photos, edited about 500 of them, wrote descriptions and posted over 150 items. It took me quite a while and I was a slave to our office/craft room during that time, but by the end of the month I had accomplished my goal and I had record sales for November. This is probably the main reason I’m blogging about November in January. Here's a little sample...and incase you were wondering all of these items are available in my Etsy shop in any of these colors here at Tom Design and friends and family get a special little discount. Love that!

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Friends

November was filled with fun nights with my friends! We had Bunco night, pretzel making, and shopping trips. I joked with Ashley and Sarah that I probably wouldn’t blog about our pretzel making until Easter because I’m so bad at this…I almost made it!

The good ones

The bad ones, boy these made us laugh!

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Party

We had a Harvest themed ward activity that I helped put on. There was a Chili Cookoff and Desert Showdown, I entered my "Cookie Turkey" and won a prize! Family photos were also taken.

The End

And now to end with just a few more photos of Bailey! We found this flower outfit thingy that my old neighbor gave us, we had to put it on her and snap a few photos. Bailey sure is a good sport for putting up with us.

She didn't like this position much.

Halloween 2010

2010-11-24T13:21:00.001-08:00

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

In previous years I would spend all month thinking about what I was going to dress up as for Halloween. Working as an elementary teacher I pretty much had to, the kids loved seeing their teachers dressed up. This year I loved seeing my own kid dressed up! Bailey's costume was a cow given to us by Mark's mom, so cute! Here's how we celebrated this year.

On the 29th we went to the only mall in town and went trick-or-treating. I felt a little awkward going to each store getting candy with Bailey's trick-or-treating bag while Mark and Bailey stood off in the distance, but then again, I love candy so it wasn't too bad. We met up with some friends in the ward and we all went out to eat after.

Clark the Shark, Bailey the Cow, and Abby the Witch!

On the 30th our ward had a little Halloween activity. We had soup in bread bowls and there was a cake walk, donuts on a string, fishing, and face painting for the kids. It was a little cramped but we had fun. We also got to see more babies in costumes which I love! Look at these babies!

If you couldn't tell I dressed up as a ballerina (thank goodness for 9 years of old dance costumes) and Mark dressed up as, um, a Bears fan?

Ashley and I with Abby and Bailey

Of course I had to have a little photo shoot with Bailey in her cow costume. She was a little hesitant at first, like, "What are you doing mom? Why are you putting me in a basket, what are these things?" But it was well worth the it! I also took pictures of her in the Halloween pajamas that Aunt Allie gave her.

"Hi mom! I'm a cow!"

Love the cheeseball face - lower right.

Look at that drool!

On the 31st, actual Halloween, we went to church. That's all. We had some kids come to the door and I gave them candy, but then Bailey went to bed so Mark put a sign out that said we were all out, sorry kids. All in all we had a GREAT Halloween!