Tiny Tim

I went to a bunch of garage sales this weekend and ended up buying hand me downs for Noah from my neighbor who has a 10 month old who outgrew his clothes. Yep, my 14 month old just got a brand new 3-6 month outfit and 6 month jeans that are TOO BIG FOR HIM STILL.

I would be more concerned, but he's hitting all his milestones (early) and is a healthy little boy. He's just tiny! Don't you just love him? :)

Anniversary Weekend

Jared and I had a great weekend getaway in Dallas, Texas-about a 5 hour drive from here. We went to celebrate 2 years of marriage and had an absolute blast! Here are some highlights:

• Eating Mexican food
• Getting free parking at the Texas Rangers game
• Being at the Texas Rangers game (we both love baseball!)
• Talking non-stop
• Eating fruit and warm bread and feeling rich
• Six Flags!
• The fact that it was "gay day" at Six Flags
• Riding about 8 rollercoasters until our bodies couldn't take it anymore- "please, no more, my brains are going to come out!"
• Going to the Dallas temple
• Eating an entire large pizza from Papa Johns AND a cinnapie! Then watching the Arkansas/Georgia game. The epitomy of lazy- and MAN WAS IT NICE!
• Sleeping without waking up to feed Noah (yeah, he still doesn't sleep all night)
• Shopping at IKEA
• Eating a burrito from Chipotle (and planning the diet that starts now)
• Visiting Jared's good friend Scott and his wife Larissa

It was a fantastic weekend- I'm so glad to be married to Jared, my best friend! These last two years have flown. We're stoked for year #3! :)

One Lucky Girl

It's been a stressful last few days with our car breaking down (yes, again), getting another eye infection (w/ $100 prescription drops), having my camera dropped on the cement and shattering the lens, and hardly seeing Jared b/c he's been so busy w/ work, school, and the Emergency Prep fair that he was partly in charge of. (!!!) HOWEVER, lucky me, I have a perfect husband to help me get through everything.

The other day, I woke up and began finding little slips of paper, love notes, all over the house. It turns out that while I was sleeping, Jared was awake and writing all kinds of messages to cheer me up. Here are some examples:

"You light up my life" (taped to a picture of Jesus)
"You mean the world to me" (taped to a world map)
"You're smoking hot" (found in the microwave)
"I love that you love to workout" (found in my running shoe)
"You make me smile" (found under my pillow)

I could go on and on...because there were 55 notes!!! I've found all of them, except for 3 or 4.

Cute, huh? Good job, Jared!!!

Race Pictures

I got to run a race on Labor Day with the following ladies (Where's Waldo? Can you find me?):
Some ran a mile, a 5K, or a 10K. I ran the 10K. It was the most fun I've ever had at a race! Not only was the race awesome, but it benefited a good cause (children), and it was so well organized. The after party was set up like a carnival with tons of free food and bounce arounds for the kids. Here's Jared and Noah looking pretty stoked about it all. (ha ha, not!) I swear they really did like it!


Here I am, pre-race. The morning was beautiful and foggy. Great running weather.


Excited! I love races!

And we're off. I'm in the middle of the pink shirts!

Noah waits patiently with his friends for me to finish. Awww, cute!

"Mmm, a sippy cup. Looks good," thinks Noah.

And here's as good as we get of a finish line shot. I look wasted by the finish line. That works.

Hooray! Victory! I did it!

Living the Dream

I don't have a whole lot of time to blog, but I thought I should update with a few pictures from the past couple weeks.

Our little dinosaur!!!

Mom made a quick visit here to pick up Kallie to drive her back to BYU. We had a fun time eating junk food and playing with our favorite little friend.

Jared's been going to school full time and working full time, in addition to church callings which seem to be full time. So, we enjoy spending every spare second together as a family.

Enjoy the Labor Day weekend. We know we will!!! :)

Life

So, our fridge goes out yesterday. We bought it TWO weeks ago. It was a nice fridge and it worked well for two weeks. Good price, no warranty. Of course.

Life is funny. Because two weeks ago, our car broke down. On the same day that our car broke down, I had just bought all new tires for it. I was waiting for a "good month" before we bought new tires, but the cute grandpa @ Wal-Mart convinced me to go for it- "M'aam, your tires are dangerously bald. I recommend that you don't drive the car anymore until you get new tires." Alrighty then, how can you argue with that?

It just so happens that all these random expenses come when we have to pay tuition for Jared and buy at least one book for all FIVE of his classes. Not to mention, we are still paying off Fridge #1.

Fridge #1...and moving expenses. It's not cheap moving, even if it's just across town. Ex: Gas (I think I made around 50 trips back and forth), carpet cleaning, new random items like toilet brushes and cleaning supplies, etc...

And a YEAR later, we receive a bill from the pediatrician that did check ups on Noah at the hospital saying we hadn't paid him (we swear that we have). Of course that is in addition to what we still actually do owe on the C-section and his NICU experience.

Speaking of doctors though, did I mention we are finally getting health insurance? So now we can tack on another $300 a month, starting...right now.

***The best part of all this for me though is the time I spend clipping coupons and planning trips to the store for sale items. Or the hours each month that Jared and I spend budgeting our money and going through each and every reciept- being accountable for every dime we spend. Or how the majority of my house is decorated by garage sale or ebay finds. Or how we quit going out to eat so that we could save on food expenses.***

It's a bit discouraging to feel like there is no control in your life even when you are doing your part.

This is a trial for me. But I am counting my blessings and I have a LOT of them. I'll keep those in mind as I go out and buy a new fridge this weekend!

Noah's 1st Birthday

Noah's birthday was on July 27. To celebrate, we got together with Noah's aunts, uncle, cousins, and grandparents. Be warned that I am posting a TON of pictures that will probably excite noone other than me and his Grandma Astle (well, and maybe Rick who can see how much we loved his gift to Noah) (or even Katie because she is featured with our delectable treats)!

disclaimer: Please ignore all pictures of my hair in this post. I got rained on and the humidity was killer that day!!!

I still can't believe my little baby is ONE. I love his little personality. He's so calm, laid back (gets it from his daddy), and fun!

I decided to get pseudo creative on Noah's cupcakes, so I went back to an idea that my mom did for me when I was little. Caterpillar Cupcakes! So fun to make! I enlisted Katie, my gourmet cooking friend, to create with me and we had a blast!



Noah contributed by eating the sugar bottle. Thanks buddy.



Here is the surprise gift that we got from Jared's best friend, Rick- one of his college buddies. Rick lives in Florida and surprised us by sending Noah a huge package for his birthday! He said we needed to raise Noah up right, so he sent a baseball mitt, ball, and bat, along with a really cool Sports book. lol! Thanks Rick!



The majority of the rest of the gifts were from Noah's G-ma Astle (my mom!) Noah's one lucky little boy. :)

I was trying to get a picture of the rain that ruined our pool party. We had fun anyways though.

Such a fun day! Next b-day on the docket: Mine in October, YES!!! I love BDAYS!!!

Love you Noah!!!