Where we are now... threw Williams eyes.

This is what happen when we let William use the camera. Pictures of where we are from his perspective. I am not sure why, but I love looking at pictures he takes. I really like the one of my back because you can see the blonde spot in my hair where the hair hits the middle of my neck.

Can you see it?

Love for Nie

I wanted to let all know that half the profits from my Etsy shop are going to the Nie recovery. What's that you say? Well, I am a blog stalker and the only blog I stalk is hers. I have a lot in common with her and then enough not in common to make it fun to read her blog...everyday. I was hoping to move down to the valley and be her friend, but before that could happen, she and her husband were in a terrible plane crash and if you would like to read more about that go here or here.

So you can check out my etsy shop and if there is something you like, get it cause the money is going to a good cause. I would have made more stuff just for the occasion, but I have been busy. Like right now I am off to pack for a weekend trip to Utah for a beloved Uncles funeral. I am going with members of my family but without my kids or my man (I hate to sleep when he isn't next to me). I hope you all have a good weekend and I hope that a lot of money is raised on the Nie Nie Day as Design Mom calls it.

p.s. Thanks to all the comments, emails, cards, phone calls, hugs, and prayers that were given to me. I find that I am recovering well from my miscarriage - physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Thank heavens for The Atonement.

We sure are going to miss it

Well we moved and are now residing in the hot valley of the sun. Most of our belongings are still in Flagstaff because our lease is not up until October, then the big move will happen (I hate moving). We have been gone for almost a week now and I wanted to take the time to document the things we will miss. The day before we left I walked around down town and visited some of my favorite shops and there was a small tear in my eye. Down town flagstaff is such a great place. Later that day we stopped packing and drove up Mt. Elden. This is something we did a lot last year, in fact the last time we did it Gracie was in my stomach. Here are some pictures of it along with a list of things we will miss...

The scenery - things like mountains and treesThe weather - seasons changing and it not getting SO hotthe farmers market - I loved shopping thereThe friends we made and our wards thereLaid back driving The fact that it didn't take more than 20 minutes to get anywhere
the parks - I prefer wood chips to sand
The Main Library - we are going to have to get used to late fees and such here
Basically the only thing we won't miss is the dog food smell (we lived close to a Purina factory) the skunk smell and having to go to the valley for some things (but that was not that often).
Look at that beautiful sunset... and the yellow Flowers everywhere.

Goodbye Flagstaff,

we will miss you

Playmates

Gracie is now old enough and she and William can both have fun playing together. This is very fun for me. This is on the playground right outside our apt in Flagstaff. Gracie wasn't crazy about going down by herself (don't worry she was going really slow).
Luckily William was happy to let him go down with her.
This was their favorite way.

I sat out on the nice summer evening watching my wee ones going down the slide about a bazillion times and Russ helping them every time. It was bliss.

These pictures were taken at my mothers house. Here they are being spun in the chair by their father.

It was all really fun, until...
Gracie started to look like this...
I made Russ stop because I could tell she was starting to feel like I feel when I am spun (dizzy and sick). We set her down to see what she would do

and this is what she did.

She could not even sit up straight. It was sad - she did not like it.

Then here at our new abode (we are living with her, but that is for another post) playing with grandmas water table on the dirty back patio.

These sweet little buns sure love to splashWilliam decided he wanted "in' the table, so...I let Gracie in too and William would spray her and she loved it. And I loved watching it.Here's to many more days of playing together. I had to add that yesterday I let William let play with this table while Gracie was napping and he came in a few times to let me know he "needed Gracie, right now". It is not as fun without her. Music to my ears.

We will miss it

Little Miss 1 year old

So here you are 1 year old. I can't even believe it. You started walking a few days after your birthday. The day we came back from California. You still crawl mostly, but you can walk.

You really like to climb on things and you do not like us to tell you "no". Actually that is not true you smile when we tell you "no" you just don't like it if we enforce it.
You like stories and pictures and you love babies. The real ones you just try to poke their eyes, but you pick up dolls and hug them and kiss them and poke their eyes. You like to eat, you still eat baby food out of a jar (Daddy really likes to feed you that) but you also eat whatever we are eating. You just started on whole milk and seem to like it just fine. You don't really like sippy cups though, so we are on the search for the one you will like so we can get you off a bottle.
You love to watch movies with your brother. One day we put you in the high chair and you heard his movie start in the other room and freaked out until we brought you in there so you could watch it. You don't sit and watch them for that long, but you do like them.
You are starting to talk. Your best word it baby and you say; mommy, daddy, puppy, William, ba ba, night night and I think I have heard you say, "getchou". Any time we ask you to say something you nod when you say it and whether or not you said it right you said it as long as you nodded. You sleep really well, you only wake up at night if your teeth are bugging you. you nap sometimes for a really long time, but I think we figured out that you are not always sleeping you just play quietly in your crib for awhile. You are a very happy baby and fun to be around. We all love you so much.

Birthday Girl - a little late

On July 30th Gracie turned 1!!! It is so crazy that she is so big now. The Saturday before her birthday we had a family dinner with my family and had cake for her. This is her in front of the happy birthday sign my mom got for her and the name sign I made for her.

This is it a little closer up. I really liked making it, I think I will be making them more often for holidays and parties and such.This is the suppose to be checkered board cake that wasn't so checker board, but was really yummy.

And Gracie's with her own cake. She was not sure what to think about that candle and the singing.
But she did not hesitate to dive right in.
She ate some of it, but after awhile she was just playing with it. Here she is sharing with her cousins. It was very fun. We also had a Christensen party the next Saturday but I forgot my camera. As soon as I get the pictures from my father in law I will do another post because that was a very fun evening too. The party was not everything that I had planned, but since I was not feeling my best there were a lot of things I had to scratch. Oh well.