Peter: Sixth Month

Above: This guy loves to play in boxes. I padded it with some blankets to make it softer for him.

Above: This guy is in his element!

Above: He loves to suck on his lower lip.

Above: This is a leftover flower from Laurie's wedding. I don't know what it is...but I love it!

Above: Nammy is a sucker for this guy. I mean, look, she gave him her watch to suck on!

Above: Nammy loves this guy.

Above: I was trying to get artistic and fit everyone in the same shot.

Above: Watching some shows with daddy.

Above: I love that chin!

Above: I love that smile!

Above: I love those eyes!

Above: I love that boy!

Above: What a cutie.

Above: He just makes me happy.

Above: He is ready to crawl...but he isn't quite there yet.

Above; He loves to suck on his lower lip.

Above: He loves to rock back and forth on his hands and knees. He will be crawling before I know it.

Above: This guy loves his binky. Look at those chubby legs!

Above: Peter loves his Mimi.

Above: Eating is a very messy thing, but look at how cute he is when he does it!

Above: Peter loves to get in the exersaucer.

Above: Peter having some epic battles with a box of tissue. I'm not exactly sure what he expects or wants that box to do...but I will tell you this, that box isn't doing it.

Above: Peter loves his Aunt Emily! Emily is my exercise buddy and comes up quite frequently to exercise with me and hang out afterward.

Above: This guy loves to snuggle. Isn't he cute?

Above: This guy has the special talent of turning graham crackers into the strongest adhesive ever.

Above: Hanging out with Dad.

Above: Hanging out with Mom.

Above: Hanging out with Aunt Emily.

Above: Getting a new hairdo with Nammy.

Above: I love his sweet face.

Above: Best buds.

Above: Getting a kick out of Daddy's fake mustache.

Above: I don't remember why we drew this mustache on Jeremiah though...besides, he can grow a crazy bushy mustache that puts this one to shame.

Above: He can't quite crawl yet...but he can scoot, and you had better believe he is getting into all sorts of mischief! I'm in for it!

Above: Peter loves to sit in a laundry basket snuggled in some blankets.

Above: Look at that double chin! This guy eats well!

Above: Just sitting on Dad.

Above: Look at those squishy legs!

Above: What a handsome, sweet guy. I sure love him.

Evolution of a Beard

Every now and then, Jeremiah grows out his facial hair (in the name of getting rid of in-grown hairs...but I know he has deeper motives).

As a favor to me this time, when it was time to say goodbye to the beard, Jeremiah shaved it off in stages. I thought it would be cool if he went all Brigham Young and did the beard thing without the mustache section still present. So, we went all 1800's shaving style! Enjoy the process!

Here is Jeremiah with a beard. He does carry off a beard pretty well, but I still prefer him clean-shaven.



Here is the first cut:



Here's the next version (we took a little off of the cheeks, but left it under the lip:



Here's the next version (with the hair separated from the chin and cheeks):



Here's a front view of the lamb chops.



Here's a side view of the lamb chops!



Here's the final, shaved product!



So, I guess if my husband DOES have to have facial hair from time to time, I prefer the 21st century version as opposed to the 19th century version. But maybe a little lamb chop action from time to time never hurt anyone!

The Things That Make Life Worth Living

Let's be honest. Life can be frustrating at times. Some days can be downright hard.

Those of you who know me well, know that I am the type of person who needs their space at times. My husband definitely knows this, but he is the complete opposite. I am a very private person and well...he's NOT.

I am very grateful to my in-laws for letting us live with them, but it can be tough for me too some days. Jeremiah and I want a place of our own and it is very frustrating to know that we will still have to wait awhile until we have that.

In my frustrating moments, it's good to remind myself of all the good things around me. These good things are as follows:

My sweet husband knew it was one of those frustrating days and came home with some red roses for me. He knows that I'm a girl who loves flowers. I want a yard full of pickable flowers so that I can pick flowers when the urge moves me.

Then, of course, just take a look at that sweet picture of my baby Peter and tell me if you couldn't be cheered up after seeing such a handsome smile! I sure love him!

It is incredibly generous of my in-laws to let us live with them so that we can have fewer bills and save up more money for a house.

My sweet little sister, Laurie, got married on Tuesday to the sweetest guy. They had a super romantic love story (breaking up, discovering their true love for one another, etc. You know, the works). They had a beautiful wedding day and I was blessed to attend their wedding in the temple and help out with their reception.

I have the sweetest, funniest, most caring and thoughtful brothers and sisters. I love how Clayton uses his witty humor to diffuse a situation. I love how much Emily loves Peter and how cute she is with him. I also love that she's my exercise buddy. I love that Nephi and Shandie are now my buddies in parenting (Nephi, Shandie, Jeremiah and I all had to take turns together taking our little ones out when they got riled up at the rehearsal dinner the day before the wedding). And look at the cute picture that came as a result of them getting riled up!



I love how Sean doesn't just come right out and say how he feels, but how his actions speak louder than words (he'll wait around to give you a goodbye hug, or call you to see if you're coming over before he has to leave because he really wants to see you before he goes).

I have a wonderful mother who is my best friend. She does so much for me. With Jeremiah still looking for work, things have been tight. She never overlooks a chance to do something for me or help out with Peter. I couldn't have given Peter as much as I would have liked to without her help.

I have a great father who is doing his best to provide Jeremiah with some good job opportunities.

So, on those days when you have the blues...or even the mean reds (check out Breakfast at Tiffany's for a definition on that one)...don't forget to remember all the things that make life worth living. It really does chase those blues away. It's a good reminder for me too!

Laurie's Wedding Day

My beautiful sister, Laurie, got married on Tuesday, June 30, 2009. She looked bee-yu-ti-ful. She is a gorgeous gal anyway, but spruce her up even more and put her in a beautiful wedding gown and she's absolutely stunning.

She got married to Clint Allred in the Salt Lake Temple. The day turned out lovely, which was a relief since the majority of June (including the day before and the day after her wedding) was rainy.

She had her reception at my Dad's house (as mentioned in the post about Cupcake Madness). There was a scary cloudburst at about 3:30 p.m. (right when we were trying to set her reception up) that knocked over half of the tables and chairs out in the yard. I was pretty worried that we weren't going to be able to have the reception outside. But it cleared up just in time to give us all a mad dash to set up the tables, decorate them and set out the food before getting our family pictures taken. It was definitely a close call! We got the food set out just as the first guests arrived.

I'm not going to lie, it was a lot of work. By the end of the night, my feet ached! What with the cupcake making and frosting and helping out with the reception, I was pretty tuckered out at the end of the day. Not to mention that we forgot about arranging for someone to cut the cake. So, I took over that responsibility (especially since I didn't want to have our family get stuck with a three layer, massive, $300 wedding cake to stick in our freezer!). It took nearly 45 minutes just to cut it up! Thank goodness my Mom's Young Women were there to pass it out to the guests. They were a huge help at the reception (they cleared the tables and restocked the food tables).

Plus, poor Peter (who had been nap deprived for the past few days due to church, a visit from the Smith family, and all of the wedding events) had a little baby breakdown at about 7:15 p.m. and Jeremiah had to take him home to feed him and put him to bed while I stayed behind to help out at the reception and help clean up afterwards.

But it was a beautiful reception. Laurie is quite the artist and visionary. She had rows of tables under a white tent. The tables were covered with vases of yellow, white and cream flowers tied with gray ribbon (her colors were gray and yellow). I didn't get a chance to take any pictures of the reception because I was busy helping, but trust me. It was very pretty.

Laurie is a sweetheart and I'm so glad that she found such an amazing guy. Clint is so good to her and we're so excited to have him in our family. It's so fun to watch a family expand. Who else (nephews, nieces, sisters-in-law, brothers-in-law) will be joining us? So fun! We'll just have to wait and see (or in Mackay talk "hide and watch").

A Visit From the Smith Family

My beautiful friend, Krissy and her family (husband, Kevin, and children Allie, Sami and Drew) were in town for their Smith family reunion. I was able to reap the benefits and get to visit with her.

They live in Florida, so we only get to see each other about once a year. Our visit this time was definitely different than past visits due to Peter's nap schedule and previously scheduled wedding events for my sister, Laurie. We only got to visit for about 3 precious hours.

We met down at Thanksgiving Point for lunch and then we took the kids to the Dinosaur Museum. They loved it. It's so fun to go to a museum with curious, fun-loving kids. They are so fun to watch.



Drew is adorable. He has even bigger thighs than my sweet Pete! His thighs were a lot of fun to squeeze. He has a talent that I wish Peter possesed. Drew can fall asleep in public. Peter can't fall asleep unless he's in his crib, on my bed or in his carseat. That makes church pretty complicated too, let me tell you. Drew has such a cute little smile and has the biggest wide-eyed expression. What a cutie.



Allie is the oldest, and she is getting to be such a pretty little lady. She's a go-getter too. It is hard to keep her in one place long enough to get a picture of her. So, when you do get a sweet smiling picture of her, it is quite the accomplishment.

Sami has grown so much since I saw her last. She's definitely not a baby anymore. She's a pretty little girl and very sweet.





Krissy and Kevin are the same great friends as always. I only wish that we had the chance to actually catch up with conversation! Between sharing burp cloths (Drew spit up on Jeremiah and Peter spit up on Kevin--a fair trade, in my opinion), calming an overtired Peter, taking the girls on bathroom breaks and taking turns holding babies and eating lunch, it was a wild afternoon. But it was so good to visit with them.



Above, is a picture of Peter, Jeremiah, Allie and Sami on a scale at the Dinosaur Museum. It compares your weight to that of a dinosaur. Here's your fun fact for the day. With me, Peter, Kevin, Krissy, Allie and Sami on board, we weighed a total of 500 lbs! I swear, I only have 7 lbs of baby weight left to lose...

We had to leave at about 3:30 p.m. because Peter was so tired that he had a baby breakdown. We got home just in time to feed him and get dressed so that we could leave again to head up to Ogden for Laurie's wedding dinner. Luckily, Peter slept the whole way up to Ogden.

It was good to visit with the Smith Family. What good friends!

Cupcake Madness!

I haven't blogged in awhile because June was CRAZY. My sister, Laurie, got married on June 30th (it was beautiful...more on that later). She had her reception in my Dad's backyard, so we all worked pretty hard to bring it all together. One of the things we provided was the food. We had mini quiche which was ordered from a lovely bakery, vegetables, cheeses, olives, hummus, fruit and...cupcakes!

My mom and I baked the cupcakes weeks before the wedding and froze them. We then thawed them out and frosted them the day before.

My mom had a traumatic experience years ago where she didn't have enough food to feed her guests and since then she plans the food in abundance. She baked 45 DOZEN cupcakes! She asked me to help out. With my little guy consuming most of my time, I was only able to manage 12 dozen cupcakes (I was proud of my little feat).

I don't think we took into account how busy it would be the days before the wedding (which was also when we planned to frost the cupcakes). As a result, I stayed up until 2 a.m. the day before the wedding frosting mine. My mom stayed up until 12:30 a.m. and then got up at 5:30 a.m. to frost hers. She only got through 35 dozen of her cupcakes when she decided to call it quits and refreeze the final 10 dozen (it turned out to be a good thing, because even with her 35 dozen and my 12 dozen, we came home with between 100 and 200 cupcakes that we passed out to a number of people in the following days).

But I'm proud of my accomplishment--especially since it was made even harder with a baby.