Free Pancake DAY!!!!!

It was free pancake day!!!  And who can say no to that?!?!  Aaron got home and I told him that we HAD to go.  Mostly because I was a victim of everyone's yummy looking instagram photos.  Everyone was posting photos of delicious free pancakes and I wanted some too.

I love this picture of Aaron. He's looking at a little hand that wants some pancake too.  Don't worry, we let him have some too. 

He couldn't take his eyes off of those golden stacks!

As I have said....I was very excited for my free pancakes.  Plus, I needed to get some good photos to ALSO put on Instagram, to prove to the internet that I'm not a loser....wait......

We haven't celebrated a lot of holidays with our son,  but I'm glad that we have observed this day, the most holy of pancake days.

Zach's 9 Month Stats

My baby is 9 months old!  6 months ago, I was joking that I only had 9 months to plan his 1st birthday party and now it is only 3 months until his birthday!!!  I don't think that any mom can say enough how fast the time flies by.  It really has hit me hard lately now that he is crawling all over the place and cruising on all of the furniture, that he is really getting big.

I suddenly understand why woman get this crazy urge to have another baby....since the little newborn is gone now and you miss all of the sweet moments of having that brand new baby.  But "luckily", the waking up all hours of the night and terrible napping, reminds me that I can just enjoy every single moment with Zach that I want before I think about having another little newborn.

How he's shaping up:
Weight: 18lbs. 10oz (31st percentile)
Height: 28 3/4 inches (67th percentile)
Head: 44cm (21st percentile)

Where is his other hand in all of these pictures?  Scratching his back.  We have been asking about his dry dry skin for awhile now and the doctor has just been saying "lotion" (because I've discovered that doctors are THE WORST and always think that you are making more out of something than you are).

I should of taken a picture but it is sad and gross.  

His skin, especially on his back, got so bad that he has some prescription cream and we have to use a special soap for him.  He has to be lotioned up at least 5 times a day.  His head used to be pretty bad and he would cut it up trying to scratch at it so not only was it dry but it had scabs all over it.  

He doesn't seem to disturbed by the whole thing though so I know that this too shall pass.

He is turning more and more into a little person that is full of personality and love.  I'm loving being a stay at home mom and I feel so lucky that I get to play and snuggle and giggle and read books and give kisses and sing songs all day long.

Zach is such a fun little person and he is enjoying being a little scientist and listening to the sounds of things banging against other things and splashing in the bath and discovering textures.  We have a wonderful life.

Early Spring Sunday

It has been so warm in Utah this winter (you know...relatively speaking) and I feel bad for people in the East coast who are having to deal with this crazy "polar vortex" because over in Utah, we are like, "Bring out the tanning lotion!"  At least, that's how I was feeling today.

Aaron had to finish up some projects for his calling and that required being outside today.  He asked Zach and I if we wanted to go outside too and, of course, we did!

Okay, watch this...when Zach is just sitting around...he looks like this:

When I wave at him and say his name, he looks like this:

He has a HUGE crush on me.  And I LOVE IT!  I'm eating it up while I can because someday he is going to be like, "Mom?  Ewwwwwwwwww!"

I wanted Zach to be able to have some freedom outside but we have concert and mud at the moment.  So I set up his play mat.  Last time he used this, it was when he was starting to enjoy tummy time and so I set up a three by three area for him to have tummy time outside.

He saw me taking pictures and crawled over to me.

Pretty soon he decided that he wanted to do some outdoor exploring.  He found some mud and decided to do some digging.

I got a little container of water thinking that he might like to play with his hands in it...but he immediately dumped it out to make better mud.

His dad got a little irritated about the dirty pants and dirty baby.  Zach's mom doesn't care as much about these things.

Once again....Zach just sitting and chilling.

When he sees mom and hears her say his name!

In closing, I can't WAIT for summer time.  I'm so excited to put in some grass and enjoy our yard this summer!  It is going to be awesome.  Everything is better with a kid to share it with!

If You Give A Mom A Muffin

I haven't written a blog post in FOREVER!!!  Seriously, I'm so grossly behind that I don't even know what to do with myself.  Losing all those pictures and videos from my old phone really messed with my mind.  I'm still so sad about it but I just figured out a way to back up my pictures and it is, oddly enough, using Google+. Who would have thought?

Anyway, I wanted to write about last week when I had some Activity Day friends over at my house!  These sweet girls have a school teacher for a mom who was having a full week of afternoons at parent/teacher conferences and so she asked if I would play with her daughters for a day this week.  I was a little nervous with what I would do with these girls for a whole afternoon!  I mean....WHAT IF I WAS BORING?!?  I would be mortified.

My little buddy and I waited at the door so that the girls would see us on their way home and remember which house was mine.

They came in and started working on their homework first (because I'm a responsible adult!) and they quickly finished.  Then they asked if they could work on their friendship bracelets from Activity Days, which was perfect because I was thinking the same thing!  We talked about different things while they worked.  The oldest girl said that she wanted to be a pastry chef when she grew up.  I asked her what she wanted to learn how to make next and she said, "Crepes!"

That sounded like something that was do-able.  So I told her, "Yeah, once Zach goes down for a nap, we can make crepes!"  He went down for a nap and we found a recipe.....unfortunately it called for milk...which was something that I had run out of that morning.

The girls were disappointed so I pulled out some cookbooks and said, "Find something in here that doesn't need milk and let's see if we can make it."

They found, "Nut Torte"....which was something that I had ever heard of or had the desire to make....but it didn't need milk and I had all of the ingredient....which were my only two stipulations and so we began in earnest!

As you will see, the girls did most of the work.  I think the only thing that I touched was grating an orange...and that was just because it was so small and soft that I was scared the girls would grate their knuckles.

I learned that a "torte" has little to no flour and is instead made with nuts or breadcrumbs.  By "little" flour it means like 2 table spoons of flour and 2 1/2 CUPS of nuts...so yeah...very little flour.  We had to add almonds since I didn't have enough walnuts in the house....and it turns out that almonds are VERY hard to hand chop....so....two words for you if you are going to use them; food processor.

Also, it turns out that I don't have ANY round cake pans.  I remember selling them because I didn't make enough cake to have a reason to keep them.  Oops.  So we decided to make mini tortes.

I also didn't have what we needed to make the frosting and so luckily, I had some cream cheese frosting from something else left over.  We decided to have orange (since there was a hint of orange peel in the recipe) and white frosting.

It came out a beautiful sunset orange/pink.

When the tortes came out of the oven, I flipped them over so that they were less like cupcakes and more like little personal cakes.  And luckily, I have decorating tips and bags from days gone by so they girls got to use those.  I showed them a couple tricks that I knew from my Wilton Cake Decorating Class days.

Didn't they turn out amazing?!  These girls have some skills!

While they were decorating, I thought, "These would be so fun to have at a dainty little tea party!"  And so I got out a tea pot and some tea cups and started warming up some water for some hot cocoa!!

This was my favorite personal creation.

We put on some Disney princess music and tried to eat and behave like princesses...while singing the songs at the top of our lungs.....and that is how Aaron found us when he got home.

It was a great afternoon and not a bit boring!  I love how one thing just lead to another and we ended up doing something fun, making something that I'd never made before and got some great memories with these wonderful girls.

Public Service Announcement: Back up Your Pictures

Everyone might have their own reason for thinking that pictures are important.  It might be for proof that an event happened.  Proof that they were there.

I want to capture a moment so that I can look at it forever.  Recall in perfection what everything looked like so that I can remember what everything felt like.

I used to wonder why people took so many pictures with their phones.  The quality is horrible in comparison to what a good point and shoot or amazing Digital SLR can take.

Once I had Zach, I totally understood.  I ALWAYS had my phone next to me and I never had time to go and grab a better camera.  Plus, I could show Grandma's and Grandpa's and Uncle's and Aunt's and anyone else who cared to look almost instantly what Zach and I were up to.

I put hundreds and hundreds of pictures on my phone.  And when he started laughing his little 3 month old Zach laugh, I started taking videos.  I put some of the pictures on Flickr.  I couldn't find a way to get the video off of my phone easily so I just enjoyed them from there.

Well....now my phone is dead and all the information has been deleted and lost forever.  And I am totally gutted.  All those videos of my little bear playing and laughing.  Crawling for the first time, are gone.

This is a lesson that I hope to only learn once.

Happy New Year 2014

It's that time of year again!  It's time for me to write a very confusing letter to myself. I started this tradition the first day of 2010 and I've loved doing it every year.   I reflect on the year that I've had and ask the "future Katrina" how her year went.  Then when I write this up for 2015, I answer those questions.  It is a great way for me to see how the year was and see what used to be important to me.  If you want to get really confused, you can read 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2013.  I, personally, find them fascinating to read but that is probably because I write them FOR me.

Dear 2014 Katrina,
Today is the last day of 2013 (and I usually post it the first day of 2014).  This year was a really big growing year.  Physically, emotionally, and spiritually.  I'm excited to write about it but first off, I'm going to try and answer the questions in my last letter to myself.

How beautiful is our little baby boy?  

Words can not even describe how I feel about Zach.  He is perfect.  True story though, when he first came out, I was like, "Oh...that poor kid.  What did I do to his head?  Will he ever look normal?"  But he quickly returned to normal and he has been beautiful ever since.  Even when he gets his little pouting face and starts sobbing, I can't help but just think he is the most beautiful little person in the whole wide world.  

That being said...I'm his mom and that might be my job to think that.  But I mean...look at this kid.

How wonderful is it being a mother?  

Being a mom is HARD!  I finally understand why when my dad would turn to my mother on vacation and ask, "How are you enjoying your vacation?"  She would respond, "Well, I'm not really on vacation."  In my mind I was like, "But we are on a beach!"  Yeah....on a beach...with the beach that she "works for."  We are currently making dirty clothes for her to wash when we get home.  She still has to make sure we don't kill each other and ourselves.  She has to make sure that we eat food and stay clean.  Being a mom is an all the time thing.

That being said, after a night of very little sleep and a constantly crying baby, when I wake up in the morning and Zach is smiling at me....there is nothing in the world that is better.  There is no sight that I would rather see.  Even this morning, when he bit me on the nose with his brand new teeth....I can think of anything else that would make life better.

Was it worth the wait and all the vomit? 

Yes.  Aaron asked me, right after Zach was born, "If you had to give Zach back but never experience any of that infertility drama and the difficult pregnancy, would you do it?"  And I said, "WHY ARE YOU MAKING ME CRY?!?!  I JUST HAD A BABY!!"  Because the answer will always be, "No."  I wouldn't trade him for anything.  I love him all the more for how hard it was to get him.

That being said, I'm NOT ready to do it all again.

Is Aaron a great dad?  

Aaron is a great dad.  He can be so adorable with Zach.  I'm still the more doting parent but Aaron FOR SURE loves Zach and carries his weight as a daddy.

How did he like changing diapers for the first time?  

He handled it like a champ.  It was so funny because the first night, Aaron was swaddling and changing diapers like a pro and since I wasn't in the position to be walking around and helping (since I would make a giant puddle of various body fluids), it was great that Aaron magically decided that he could do all of the things that he was nervous about.

How are the callings at church coming along?  Still working hard or did it get ridiculously hard with a little one?  

Aaron and I were making it work pretty well even with Zach.  But the primary president got released since she moved to Las Vegas and I was released and put into Activity Days.  I was doing Activity Days and Cub Scouts for awhile because Aaron needed to have a partner and he didn't get one until about a month ago.  I absolutely LOVE being in Activity Days.  It is like cub scouts for girls and I'm a girl!  So it is great.  It is weird that Aaron and I don't have any callings together.  I guess that we had to grow up sometime.  It is also weird being in Relief Society again.  Not bad weird....just...more intellectual conversation weird.

Did you get to do any traveling before the baby came?  After?

In March, we went to San Diego/Oceanside and it wasn't the best trip...actually.  I had a cold the whole time but Aaron was determined to go and see stuff so basically I got dragged around feeling like crap.  BUT we got to take some awesome maternity photos at the same time meeting up with an old friend of mine.  That was pretty great.  So that trip was kind of a mixed bag.

And the only trip after Zach was born, was to Myrtle Beach to visit his "aunts and uncles".  It was definitely more stressful with a baby but it was a wonderful trip.  We got to see some wonderful friends and do some new fun things.  Plus, I had some extra hands to help out with Zach...which he LOVED.  

Now the the question portion is over, we are onto the REVIEW OF GOALS (said in a loud booming announcer voice).

Oh wow...Reading that first goal just made me realize how quickly this year went by. 

• Finish reading Teaching, No Greater Call and The Infinite Atonement

I remember vividly having a conversation with Aaron that was like, "We need to finish the Book of Mormon and when we are done, I would love to read The Infinite Atonement together this year."  That didn't happen.  We did finish the Book of Mormon.  It was a challenge to read it before the start of 2013 and I think Aaron and I finished in February.  I did finish reading "Teaching, No Greater Call"  but I only read about half of "The Infinite Atonement".  I started reading it right after Zach was born.  I would read it when I was breastfeeding since that was most of my life and it took him a long time.

Second goal:

• Go to the temple at least once a month (this is going to stay on here until we do it perfectly!)

No.  We didn't do it.  *hangs head in shame*  But I was thinking about it the other day and trying to figure out why it doesn't happen as much as I would like.  We are busy.  Not just...I don't know...lazy?  It really is, that we are busy.  We got to the temple the most when we are on vacation.  When we are on vacation near a temple, it is a number one priority because we finally have the time to just do it.  We go to the MOVIES less than we go to the temple....so I want to improve on this one...but I'm not going to beat myself up about it.

Third goal:

• Grow and harvest at least 3 things that aren't raspberries (because we all know that the raspberries will come no matter what you do).

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!  YEAH RIGHT!!!  I didn't do ONE SINGLE THING in the garden this year.  We had raspberries and they were delicious.  We had grapes AND this year, a woman in my ward loaned me her juicer and so I actually made my own juice with those grapes.  Normally they just rot on the vine because I didn't know what to do with grapes that have seeds.  But they made amazing juice.  Ummmm....and I blanched and froze my own peaches....so...does that count?  I'm going to count it.  I learned some new skills and we were able to enjoy (and still enjoy THREE different kinds of produce).

Fourth goal:

• Continue improving the house

Check!  We are putting in a sprinkler system.  And I think that it was this calendar year that we finished painting the horrible wood in the basement.  So yeah....we are making some progress.

Fifth goal:

• Write in your journal at least once a week

One good thing about having the goals so high, is that, if I fall short, I've still done SOMETHING that was good.  I didn't write in my journal once a week but I did write and I did write pretty often.  I wrote so much in my church journal that I've decided to write ALL of my journal entries in my church journal.  I've come to realize that my life has gotten more and more centered on Christ and so I don't see the point of having two journals.  And of course, I do have this blog...and I'm pretty sure that I've come pretty close to writing every week on the blog...maybe sometimes in a glob.

Sixth goal:

• Go to a new state with Aaron (Wyoming...Colorado...they are both really close).

YES!!!  We went to South Carolina!!!  I'm so glad that we did this.  Last year I had this goal and we didn't do it.  We just went to California A LOT.  I'm so glad that we were able to go to a state that both of us had never been to. 

Seventh goal:

• Give your baby a million kisses

I don't know if I've gotten quite there yet...but heaven knows that I have been trying.  That boy is powered by kisses.  Sometimes he starts to cry and get tired or upset for one reason or another...and I just kiss the ever living light out of his face and he powers back up.  I also "eat" his tummy...he loves that.  It gives him the giggles.

Well, let me write about 2013.

I'm testing the theory that with the greatest joys come the greatest sorrows/trials.  I finally got my wonderful little boy.  Nothing more wonderful or glorious could have happened to me this year.  I've wanted it so badly for so long and I finally got my miracle baby.  

3 weeks later, I had to have surgery and I couldn't hold my baby for a week.  It wasn't the first health problem of the year.  I also had pneumonia early in the year.  After the surgery, I got thrush which was incredible painful but got cleared up relatively quickly.  

During all of that, my mother saved my son's life.  Turns out that he didn't like the medication that I was on and decided that breathing wasn't something he wanted to have to worry about while he was sleeping.  That was a HORRIBLE day.  I don't think that my mom will ever recover from that but I'm so grateful that she was able to come out to Utah again to be with me.

This year while I thought that I was making amazing progress with my scripture reading, calling completing, and Christ-like becoming, I was made painfully aware that no matter what you are going or how good you might be doing on your own personal journey toward God, PEOPLE WILL JUDGE YOU.  I thought that I had left all of that behind me when I started fervently on my journey back to my Heavenly Father. 

It wasn't a bad lesson to learn.  It was very painful to realize that there will always be people who think badly of you.  But in this, I realized that it doesn't matter.  The ONLY THING that matters is the you are doing your best and that you keep moving forward towards God and helping Him move the "work" along.

This trial also helped me put in perspective how far I've come on my spiritual journey.  6 years ago, something like this might have helped me justify leaving the Church.  It might have discouraged me so much that I wouldn't want to be part of a Church with such non-Christlike people.  But I'm at a place spiritually that I knew that those people were wrong about me but that they were also human.  That they were on their own personal journey back to Christ.  And that's okay.

It also helped me review the ways that I look at people and the ways that I judge people.  So by being judged, I saw ways that I could improve how I see people, treat people, judge people in an unkind way.

I got my DRIVER'S LICENSE THIS YEAR!  I'm so excited!  Having a driver's license opens so many different doors for me.  I'm able to do so much more on my own and the independence is exhilarating.  I feel bad about all the years that I didn't have my license but that is in the past and I can only move forward.

Also in 2013, I ended my job as an assistant teacher at the preschool I worked at.  I LOVED that job.  It was incredible and you better believe that I miss those kids every day.  I started a new job as Zach's mom and I know that I'm going to have a wonderful time with it.  It is hard.  It is 24/7 but it is going to be worth it.  I also started a Mary Kay business.  WHAT?  Yes.  We need some extra income and this is a wonderful way for me to get that extra money and still be able to be a stay at home Mom for Zach.  So wish me luck people! Or better yet, buy some moisturizer and cleanser for your face! :)

Goals for 2014:

• Find a spiritual book you want to read and read it!  I vote The Infinite Atonement...but the New Testament would be nice too.
• Go to the temple at least once a month (Because I said, that I would put it on here every year till I do it right)
• Rid the house of nonessentials and live in such a way that you embrace experiences and not things.
• Get the house in "selling order".  We might not move this year, but I want to start living in a way that we are ready to get out of here.

I have some other goals but they are more private (what?  What is this...private, you speak of?).  I'll write them down in my journal and work on them throughout the year...but I want to remember that they are in my journal and not on here for next years letter to myself.

More of a wish than a goal for the new year, I want to move.  Aaron and I are looking into ways to make that happen.  But that is my greatest wish.  Utah is a nice place but it isn't home.  Aaron and I knew that this wasn't where we wanted to end up and so we are going to be trying to find a new adventure for our family.

Questions for the Katrina that lived through all of 2014.  I want to hear all about how much Zach has grown and all of the things that he can do now!  Is he sleeping through the night yet?  Have you started feeling like he needs a brother or sister?  What is your favorite mother/son thing to do together?  What fun things do Aaron and you get to do?  Did you move?  Do you have a place that you are thinking about?  How did the Mary Kay business go?  

2013 was a pretty great year in most ways but a very trying way in others.  2014 is going to be full of new experiences and more "firsts" for our little family.  I'm excited to see the people that we continue to grow into.  I'm so glad that I get to have such a great family to adventure with and I'm ready to see what wonderful things we can do!

Bring on 2014!!!
-Katrina

Zach's 6 Month Stats

This little Sun Bear is getting bigger and bigger!  He still is having problems sleeping longer than 3 hours at a time and usually wakes up every 1-2 hours and needs help going back to sleep but, no fear, we still love him.

He is getting closer and closer every day to starting to crawl.  He gets up on all fours and just rocks himself and then flops over but we know he will get the hang of it.

Here are his stats:

Weight: 17lbs 5oz (47th percentile) Down from 50%

Height: 27 inches (68th percentile) Down from 84%

Head: 42.5 cm (26th percentile) Down from 44%

So, he's getting bigger but he isn't staying a big chunker.  But he still eats every 2 hours so he must have a pretty fast metabolism.  I love watching this little bear growing and getting more mobile.  I think that he is going to like having more control over where his body gets to go.