No, we haven't died, we just moved...again...

Yes, it's been a long time since I've posted. No, nothing is wrong, life has just been busy. (And I am aware that I've used that excuse before, but it still stands.)

So this past month has been exciting, though not quite as exciting as April was. We had Mother's Day, where Chris gave me a new camera in honor of my first Mother's Day actually being a mother, so all the pictures I posted are from a much needed upgrade.

For Memorial Day we went to Utah to visit Chris's family, since it was the last chance we'd have to see them until Labor Day in September. Chris doesn't get any time off work until he's been at his job for 6 months. :( We had a nice lazy weekend hanging out with the family, then on Monday we went to visit 2 cemeteries, one in Salt Lake, one in West Jordan. Visiting cemeteries is a tradition Chris's family has done for many years, and I know many people do the same thing, but it was never something my family has done. I'm not sure why; perhaps we never lived in a place where we had family buried, who knows. But visiting the cemeteries with Chris's family was a very interesting experience. It took some time to get over the idea of walking on and around graves, but it was fun to learn some family history and spend time with cousins and aunts/uncles and grandparents.

We also moved again this month. I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, "Wait, I thought Cindy and Chris just barely moved" and you would be correct. We moved from Virginia back in October and lived with my kind brother and sister-in-law for a month in Broomfield, CO before moving again into our own apartment in Thornton, CO. We lived in Thornton for 7 months and we moved 2 weeks ago to Greeley, CO to be closer to Chris's work. It's a smaller town, kind of in the middle of nowhere, and when the wind blows just right, you can smell the cows. I hope that paints the appropriate picture of where we now live. :) But really, so far it's been great. I found a nice little gym with some great classes that I've been enjoying, and our ward here seems great. I miss our friends in Thornton/Broomfield, but we're only 45 minutes away so hopefully we can stay in touch, though I'm not the best at keeping in contact with people I like... But so far, so good. We're slowly digging our way out of boxes and getting things settled.

Chris and I celebrated our 5th anniversary on June 16th. I can't believe we've been married for 5 years. I wanted to do something special for our 5th, like go on a cruise or a weekend away somewhere, but, like I mentioned earlier, Chris doesn't get any time off for awhile and finances didn't really allow us to do anything grand, so we settled for a nice, normal date. With Sadie, we don't get to go on dates too often; in fact, any time together sans baby is a treat. We went to a Japanese restaurant and then saw The Avengers while my lovely brother Ben watched Sadie for us. The food was fantastic and the movie was awesome. I had shrimp and veggie tempura and the rice was in the shape of a heart!! The food looked so good I had to take a picture.

I've been meaning to do a post with the sole intention of recording Sadie's recent achievements, but that hasn't happened so I'll just include that here. Sadie is now 10 months (almost 11) and weighs 19 pounds, according to our questionably-accurate home digital scale. Sadie is a fabulous crawler, she learned back in April (I don't remember if I've recorded that or not). She has two little teeth, both on the bottom, which she also got back in late April/early May. She pulls herself up on anything she can and walks alongside it. She frequently spends a good portion of the day walking along the couches, back and forth, back and forth... Sadie can now wave and does so in the cutest manner possible. She'll hold her arm up straight and wave her little hand up and down and usually has a huge smile plastered to her face. It's so cute. She likes to talk (and by talk I mean baby gibberish) and loves to pull our dvds off their shelves. Also she loves flicking doorstop springs and eating things off the floor. I try my best to stop her from eating bits of who-knows-what but I can't have my eyes on her every second of the day. That girl is fast and if she really wants to get somewhere, she can book it. Lately, with all the hot weather, we have enjoyed some pool days. I bought her a blow up ladybug floatation device that makes me feel more comfortable taking her to the pool by myself (she's only 10 months, after all) that is super cute. I haven't been able to get any action shots of her in the pool yet (since I've been by myself) but hopefully someday soon I can get one because she looks great in her swimwear. :) She's got a pink bathing suit and a big white sunhat that I make her wear, and she looks great in her floaty ladybug.

 Sadie is pro at emptying our dvd shelf in record time. I'm trying to get a video of her doing it because it's really funny to watch, but every time I turn on the camera she gets distracted and stops working her magic. Silly Sadie.

 We call this her "muppet face" because we think she looks like a Muppet when she makes it. :) 

I've been experimenting in the kitchen lately and trying new recipes. This top picture is of a penne, eggplant, fish, parsley, and tomato dish I got from Giada's show Everyday Italian. I think I watch too many cooking shows during the day...

 This recipe was from a website of low-cal meals I found. It's chicken rollatini with spinach and ricotta cheese inside. It was de-lish.

I think that's all for now. I'll try and do better with my updates in the future, but I can't make any promises. :)

Busy, busy April!

I haven't blogged in awhile and it's because April was a whirlwind of events. It started with Easter when we went to Utah to visit Chris's family. We had a wonderful time. I didn't take as many pictures as I should have, but here are the ones I got...

 Sadie got to meet her great-grandparents in Salt Lake. We had a nice little visit.

 Sadie fell asleep in Kevin's arms. What a nice uncle!

 

I think Sadie's favorite part about Easter was playing with that plastic that was wrapped around her basket. Why is it that babies love plastic and wrapping paper so much?

 

This is right after the Easter egg hunt where I basically picked up eggs for her. 

After Easter, Kevin and Lori drove to Colorado to visit us. I couldn't believe how sweet Eric was with Sadie! He kept asking if he could hold her, it was so sweet. Such a great cousin. Sadie was so happy during their visit. I think if she had her way we would have constant visitors so she would have someone other than boring mommy to play with during the day. :)

 We went to Boulder and did a little nature walk down a pretty path before going to dinner at The Cheesecake Factory. Yummmm....

After Kevin and Lori's visit, my parents came in town and we all went to Steamboat Springs with Ben and Allison. We went hiking, swimming in the hot springs, played card games, went hot-tubbing, and ate entirely too much Coldstone ice cream cake.

 Lori brought me a starter kit for Amish Friendship Bread; it takes 10 days to make and was absolutely DE-licious!!

 Sadie with Grandma and Grandpa at Steamboat Springs.

On our way to the hike we came across a baby bear crossing the road, only to be followed by momma bear and another baby!! It was so cool. I think the only time I've ever seen a bear not in a zoo or on tv was at Yosemite once as a kid, and it was nighttime so I don't have a very clear memory. This was crazy.

 There's the first bear cub.

 

There's momma and the second cub. She wouldn't cross the street to her baby until we drove away. Smart momma bear.

 

 Check out how close we were!! I can't believe what a good shot we got. Oh how I love having a camera phone. :)

Here are a few pictures from the actual hike. And, no, we did not run into any more bears, thankfully. 

haha, Sadie fell asleep on the hike. What a great face!

Ok, I just realized that these 3 above pictures are from a different hike we went on a couple weeks ago in the Flatirons near Boulder with Ben and Allison, NOT Steamboat Springs. I don't feel like copying/pasting them to a different part of this post, so there ya go. 

Now these are all Steamboat Springs!

 

     
 

Sadie got in some good play-time with Grandma. And Grandpa too, just not in this picture. :)

After a wonderful week at Steamboat Springs, I hopped on a plane and went to Riverside/San Diego for the weekend for my friend Liel's wedding. It was a fast paced weekend---I rented my first car, experienced the legendary LA traffic where it took me an hour and half to go 30 miles, visited Riverside for the first time (it was surprisingly beautiful, much more than I expected), visited San Diego and the temple there for the first time, and had some good "me" time. My friend Kate was supposed to come too but got strep at the last minute--total bummer.

 My outfit for the wedding, aside from the flip flops. I wore some snazzy Sarah Jessica Parker-esque shoes, but they didn't get put on until the last minute.

 Me and Liel, the beautiful bride. I was impressed by how poised she was; very gracious and collected in accepting compliments and making conversation with wedding guests. I was privileged to get to share the day with her. I also forgot how much I really like Liel and how much fun she is to be around. We really must have a roomie reunion sometime in the next few years. It's just so hard to get everyone in the same state...

 Liel and Will after getting married in San Diego.

 Not the most flattering picture of me, but I like the angle of the temple.

What a beautiful temple! I definitely would like to go back and visit San Diego again someday. 

After coming home I got to spend the rest of the weekend with my parents, Ben and Allison, and Daniel and Becca (they came out for the weekend, though, since I was gone Friday and Saturday for the wedding, I only got to see them on Sunday). We spent the day having a weenie roast in B&A's new fire pit, with s'mores for dessert, then playing Bang! and Scum in the basement while the kids slept. It was a crazy busy weekend (and week) but lots of fun. 

So that's our April in a nutshell. I'll do another post about Sadie's achievements this month, and there have certainly been many of those!! I can't believe how fast she is growing. I wish she'd just slow down a bit...