9 Months Up, 9 Months Down...

Daisy is now 9 months old and on the go constantly. She is a quick little girl and goes where ever she wants now. She army crawls still and will get up on her hands and knees, but army crawling is faster. And faster for this little girl is the only way. She is not a slug. She likes to explore and see new things. She will play by herself for like an hour. Her favorite game to play right now is chase Finch. To be fair she crawls up to him, he moves to a new spot and she follows. Its fun though becuase he will let her do this for a really long time. Daisy also likes to play with her favorite toy, a pink ball. She likes to watch it roll and go after it. She can sit up, but won't. Everytime I try and sit her on her bum she goes as rigid as a board. I don't know why but sitting is not her style. She weighs 17 pounds and 5 ounces, its almost time for move up to bigger diapers... sad. She is also 27 and half inches tall. She can still fit into 3 month clothes and 9 months clothes look too big. She is tall enough for them, but has a little wiast. She likes to touch things with one finger especially her food tray. So it looks like she is constantly demanding more food. She said Mama and squeels very loudly. Sometimes I think there is a dog in my house because that's what she sounds like. She cut two more teeth this past week. They are her two top teeth, but not the middle ones. So she will look like a baby vampire for a while. She gets excited when I show her vidoes of Aaron which make me smile. I love getting to play with her everyday and feel so blessed to be her mom.



Life Without a Husband and Other Thoughts...

Well Aaron has been gone for a month now. It has gone by fast so far. Now I can say he'll be home in four months not five! Being a single mom hasn't been that bad. Luckily I only have Daisy and she is a good baby. Something that I have really enjoyed so far about him being gone is letters. Writing letters is the only other way I communicate with Aaron other than our 15 minute phone calls once a week. I forgot how fun it is to get real mail, not just bills. Its also fun to write a letter, its almost like a journal entry to Aaron about what Daisy is doing and what I am doing. Aaron sounds like he is starting to enjoy this experience. I think once he got over the initial shock of being in the military he got into the groove of things. He likes learning everything from marching to getting in shape, which he says his pants don't fit anymore. Wish I had a drill Sargent sometimes to whip me into shape. I have been trying harder to work out every day. I actually enjoy a good work out especially when I make it apart of my daily routine, but its the motivation to start that always gets me. Anyway I am missing my husband. Its amazing how I have started to build a real life with Aaron and when he's not here its like I am kind of on hold in some areas. I miss little things like Daisy getting excited when he comes home from work or just watching TV together in the evenings. I realize that I really like have a companion. I also am thankful that this isn't permanent. If time keeps going like it has been he'll be home before I know it.

I do have some goals I would like to accomplish while he is gone though. Since he is not here I obviously have more free time and I am alone so I decided I should try and improve myself while he is gone. ( I am always thinking of ways to be better, but maybe this time I will follow through :)) Anyway I want to play the piano more specifically "Dawn". This is the song that opens the newest version of Pride and Prejudice. I could play almost all of it in high school, but never learned the last page. So right now I am relearning it and am going to finish it for real this time.

Like I have already said I have projects around my house, but that's my house not me. So I have also ( wish me luck) made a goal to be very active. I have more than an hour in the evenings I can dedicate to exercise. Now this ones hard because I like to veg once the sun goes down and watch TV, but I thought why not work out while I watch TV.

I also want to study my scriptures more effectively. Sometime I will read my scriptures because I know I should but, I don't put in as much effort as I know I could. I also sometimes don't have direction when I just open to a chapter and start reading. So my goal is to have purpose when I read and a desire to learn. Like the quote says whom ever reads them the most will love them the best. I want to love them the best.

I am also thinking about stealing my sisters Heidi's idea for a short hair cut. I don't have long hair now and it still annoys me. I hate doing my hair and would love a nice clean short hair cut that could be done in 10 minutes and still look good. However, I am talking about way short and I will have to be brave it I really do it.

Projects

 My plans to fill time while Aaron is gone has been to do projects around my house. Little projects and big projects. But after two straight weeks of thinking about what I want to do around my house and doing projects I got annoyed, annoyed of a messy house. If your like me when you do a project everything else that needs to be done around the house falls to the wayside. So I have taken a few steps back and cleaned my house. I feel like I can breathe better when my house is clean. But I did get some fun projects done and some other projects started.

 This is my halltree. I have had it for two years, a great goodwill find. I have wanted to redo it since I got it and now I finally did it!

                                                                             Before

After.

I really like the way it turned out!

I have also put up a back splash in my kitchen, but it needs some finishing touches so I will post pictures once that's done. I have paint under my finger nails for weeks now...

She said...

MAMA!

Diasy said her first word this week. I wasn't sure at first if she was really saying it, but as the week went on it was clear that she knew I was mama. So it wasn't one of the those moments like on TV when the baby says their first word. But it is still fun that she that she said MAMA : )

P.S. THANKS FOR THE PICTURES MOM.

Thoughts of the Day...

I am in a love hate relationship with my house right now. I love having my home. I can tinker, paint, pretty much do whatever I want to it (unless its outside, dang HOA, but that's a whole other issue). Anyway since Aaron has been gone I have been going at my house like a crazy lady. Yet, I still don't feel like anything has changed or that I even love what I am doing. Maybe it is just today I am feeling like this because my poor home hasn't been properly cleaned in a while. Its easy to not clean when there's no husband coming home by 5 every day : ) I have many projects and ideas for my house and eventually I will post pictures when they look good enough. But today all the nick nacks I have collected over the past few years don't have a home and are all on top of my fridge. I don't feel very creative. I need a boost of craftiness.

And in my search for crafty ideas I have been looking at A LOT of blogs. I am amazed at how beautiful some women have decorated their homes. It make me jealous I admit it. So here is the point of this post. I am sick of looking at perfect blogs. These women are awesome and I love stealing there ideas, but seriously do they ever sleep or play with their children. Their homes are so up to date with every new home trend its ridiculous. I love to decorate my house and I will continue to look at blogs, but I just had to put my two cents out there. Anyway...

I got to talk to Aaron today. They give him 15 minutes to talk to me... how generous of them. It was so good to hear his voice. And the fun part is I wasn't even expecting him to call. He normally calls on Sunday, but today is Saturday so that was a pleasant surprise. Since we only get a few minutes our conversations aren't extensive, but I am glad I get to talk to him. Today he told me that he feels like BMT is a lot like the MTC but without the spirit. He told me everyone says the same things like "when I get out of here I'm gonna..." or
" I miss real food ". That makes me laugh. The first week I got to talk to Aaron he told me not to send him a care package because if there was food in it they would just dispose of it. Today he told me that one of the other men in his flight group got a care package from his brother who works at the Mrs. Fields cookie factory. The package was full of cookies and one large cake cookie. You know the kind with the frosting that they sell at the mall? Anyway when the drill Sergeant saw the package and that it said Mrs. Fields on it he decided that Aaron's group could eat the cookies. Aaron said everyone was super excited. So after the cookies were all eaten, the Sergeant says "on your face" which means hit the floor. For the next half hour or so Aaron's whole group had to work off the cookies. According to Aaron it was not comfortable to have eaten 5 helpings of Mrs. Fields and then do endless push ups and leg flutters. But if I was the drill Sargent I think I would have been enjoying myself. I miss Aaron, but we are doing okay. It is true though distance does make the heart grow fonder. I am also really appreciating Aaron more for everything he does when he's home. I do love that boy

Daisy's Days

 Well Daisy is 8 months old now. More and more of who she is pops out all the time. We love this babe some much! She eats a lot, army crawls everywhere, picks up new sounds to make everyday, and is also making new expressions.

She is so stinking cute! I love it!

Basic Training

I wish that I had a cleverness about me when I wrote. My blog post are always so dry and boring. I love reading smart and funny blogs, but I guess that's not my style. Anyway I know that is a weird introduction to a blog post titled "Basic Training". But Aaron left yesterday morning for Lackland, Texas for the next 5 months. I wanted to write a post that relayed just how much I loved spending time with him before he left and how much I will miss him for the next few months, but I don't have the words to make it sound romantic or interesting to anyone else but me. Even that last sentence sounds cheesy to me. But its true Aaron is now officially in the military. I am proud of him right now and also glad that I am not the one who has to be yelled at by drill Sargent's or have to suffer through August in Texas. This is a new experience in Aaron's life and mine. I am excited for him and nervous. I can't wait till I get to talk to him and see how his first days have gone.

I am going to miss him. He has only been gone for two days now and so far Daisy and I are doing just fine. It helps that my mom has an open door. I drove up to Pinetop yesterday, I didn't want to be home alone just yet. I told Aaron before he left that the thing I would miss most is him and Daisy together. I can see how much he loves his his little girl. Anyway before he left I tried to take a lot of pictures of him and Daisy together so I could make Daisy a book of Aaron that we could look at everyday.

These are just a few...

 This one makes me laugh, it was right after a particularly loud Daisy fit. Don't their faces look so happy?

Skinny Dippin....

Looks like Daisy had fun at Grandma and Grandpa Brooks's.

Thanks for watching Daisy!

California

We went to California this past weekend for a kind last hurrah before Aaron left for boot camp. The last time we went on a vacation was our honeymoon.

We had a good excuse to go to California because one of Aaron's old mission companions was getting married. The wedding was at the New Port Beach Temple and it was beautiful. The ceremony was also very sweet. I loved being in the temple and watching  two people start their life together forever.

 

THE BEACH

 Don't worry these aren't his real sunglasses.

 This was my first time away from Daisy. I missed her little face.

 Aaron's excellent picture taking skills.

I had never been in a BrookStone before this trip... those chair were awesome.

Pioneer Day

I don't remember the last time that I celebrated the 24th of July. When I was little it was always a fun day because I got to wear a pioneer dress, be in a parade ( even if it was a little one around the stake center, that was a big deal in my 6 year old brain), eat pie, and play games. This year my Mom and Dad's stake put on a great celebration that was at the park and open to everyone. Before we left for the day's fun however, it was picture time.

 

This isn't the best picture, but these are all twelve of my parent's grandchildren. I was an aunt in the 5th grade so until I got married I got to spend a lot of time with all these kids. I love how fun they are and how much they have grown!

Pioneer Daisy.

 I love her in this bonnet, thanks Grandma for making it.

I wasn't looking my best in these picture because I couldn't wear make-up because of an eye cold... okay pink eye, but I still love every family picture I have. 

 My lovely older sisters Jill and Heidi.

My sister in laws Connie and Brittany :)

And my older brother's Tim and Peter.

And my Dad in a dunk tank... hehe