How I Spent My Day.

Want to know how I spent my day?

Chasing this little rascal away from Nixon's food dish. I even let him sample a piece thinking it may deter him from going back. It didn't. It was just gross. I had to swab his mouth to get out the food. I put the dish up on the microwave. I spent the rest of the day right behind him as he crawled up the stairs. He's getting fast and daring! I love my little adventurer.

A Talk for Young Mothers.

I came across this talk from the October 1997 General Conference address by Jeffery R. Holland just at the moment that I needed it most. It's funny how the Lord works that way. I urge all mothers, especially young mothers, to read over the whole talk. Elder Holland says some really sweet and encouraging things that spoke directly to my heart and spirit. I picked out a few of my favorite parts (there are a lot) to share. Hopefully you will find something you needed to hear.  

Grateful.

Ask anyone that knew me from 2000-2010 I have always been somewhat of a holiday scrooge. I think it started when I was old enough to realize that if I helped put up all the decorations I had to help take them down. I hated cleaning up. I still do. So if I didn't make the mess I would excuse myself from cleaning it. Also, I've always kind of had a bad taste in my mouth for how commercialized Christmas and Thanksgiving have become. The world tends to forget what these holidays are truly about, Christ, family, service, gratitude, and love; not Santa and presents, or stuffing our faces with turkey. But Caiden has found the inner elf in this scrooge and this holiday season something inside me has transformed! I started listening to A Very She & Him Christmas and the Michael Buble Christmas album just days after Halloween ended. I started making Caiden's Christmas wish list and looking for Black Friday deals on the few little toys we want to buy him. I'm anxiously awaiting the day we can bundle him up and build a snowman together and go cut down our Charlie Brown Christmas tree. We've already started reading him the story of Christ's birth at night when we read scriptures, formulating ideas for Christmas traditions, and dancing in the kitchen with Caiden to Justin Bieber and Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas is You" because truly I feel so grateful to have my sweet baby boy this holiday season, all I want for Christmas is Miles and Caiden. 
So, I say to my inner scrooge: bring on the holiday season! And since today is Thanksgiving, present this picture list of the things I am most grateful for.

First and foremost I am thankful for these two boys. They are the loves of my life and my greatest blessings. 

I'm so grateful for my puppy dog. He's a great companion and a best buddy.

I'm so incredibly grateful for my big family. My parents and sisters have blessed me life incredibly, and I feel so grateful for my extended family. I was blessed to marry a man with the greatest parents and siblings. I'm a lucky girl!

I'm grateful for beautiful New England autumns and the beauty on the earth that Heavenly Father has blessed us with. He is the ultimate artist.

I'm grateful for nap time. I love playing with Caiden, but I'm grateful for a few hours out of the day where I can rest and regroup for more playtime! And good naps keep him happy, healthy, and growing!

I'm grateful for Coco Bean cupcakes. They are one of the only thing I'll miss when we leave Rexburg. Nothing better than a Coco Bean date.

At each new phase of my life, I'm more and more grateful for my mom. Especially now as I've become a mom I rely on her and call her with questions daily. 

I'm thankful for pregnant sisters, because that means 2 new nieces will be joining our family. Nikki is due in December and Jen in May. 

I'm grateful for 22 more days until Miles graduates from BYU-Idaho. This picture was taken at 47 days to graduation, so cut that chain in half! We're almost there!

The Boy is 8 Months Old!

Caiden had another big month! He is truly our pride and joy. We love this little guy, every day gets better and better. Here's what the boy has been up to this month:


-He started chewing on his thumb, found out it was because he was teething.
-The boy has 2 freckles; on eon his forehead and one on his bum! 
-Caiden loves to people watch. Sometimes when we have nothing else to do we'll walk up to campus and sit in the MC and he'll be entertained just watching people go about their day.
-He started crawling backwards (click here to read more) and started crawling forward! He's getting stronger and faster every day. 
-This month the boy has been working on his 4 top teeth. Teething was a nightmare for about two weeks. He seems to be doing a lot better. It worries me that they've stopped moving around and we'll have to start all over, but I can see a little tooth breaking through on his top left (the tooth next to the middle left tooth).
-The boy is very independent when it comes to his food. He will only eat something if he can feed it to himself. This rules out your normal baby foods and leaves him with mushy vegetables. He does not like apple sauce, anything peach flavored, or carrots. We found Caiden's magic food: reduced sugar oatmeal. He loves it. He'll also eat bananas, cubed sweet potatoes, liked avocado slices for a few days, and baby yogurt. With the oatmeal and yogurt he has to be holding the spoon with you while he eats. 
-speaking of food this month the boy got a highchair! He can frequently be seen leaning over the side to share his food with Nixon. They've become great pals as of late. Although it seems to be a love/hate relationship. Nixon loves that Caiden loves to share but doesn't care much for the hair tugging and kicking.
-Caiden experienced his first Halloween and dressed up like baby Mario! 
-the boy now has to be sleeping on his belly. The moment I lay him in his crib he rolls over to his tummy and falls asleep.
-his favorite toys include: a Lamaze elephant toy, CD's, mirrors, his exersaucer, the Preach My Gospel manual, all books but especially the touch and feel ones, his doggy Nixon, his rubber bath time frogs, and anything that has a cord or string.
-he still hates his car seat but he's coming around to the vacuum. 


Caiden is the sweetest little man I've ever met. He reminds me on a daily basis that he's my number one fan and an angel sent from heaven. I love being his momma.

Future Missionary.

Caiden is already starting to crawl much faster and stronger. I love watching him and catching him on video, like the one above. And what, pray tell, do you think he was crawling so anxiously towards? The Preach My Gospel manual. I think we have a zealous future missionary on our hands. Love this boy.

Crawling Boy.

[crawling backwards]

Caiden has been crawling backwards for about a month. He looks behind him, figures out where he wants to go, pivots, and backs in. It's hilarious. My mom got to watch it on skype and reminded me that I needed to video tape it. So a week ago when we were visiting Miles at work I decided to put Caiden down and let him crawl so I could tape him. He was moseying around for awhile and then to our surprise he started crawling forward! My heart immediately filled with the sweetest type of pride. I have heard that crawling is a bit of a terror, but maybe it's because he isn't very fast yet, or that our apartment is pretty small, but it hasn't been bad. In fact, Caiden's been using his new found freedom for good. Like this morning, when he crawled over to where I was laying on the floor watching him, grabbed on to the collar of my robe and pulled me in for a big slobber kiss. He knows the way to his momma's heart.

[crawling forwards]

Farmers Market.

At the end of summer Miles, Caiden and I joined my mom and dad at the Farmers Market at the Danbury Mall. The two summers we lived in Sacramento I frequented the Farmers Markets. There's something beautiful about all the colors and the fruits and vegetables. And fresh from the farm veggies are always better than what you can buy at the grocery store. We enjoyed the apple cider donuts (especially Caiden. He would squeal in anger if a new bite wasn't presented as soon as he finished the last one), the various bread and pie samples, and my mom grabbed some fresh vegetables and pasta noodles for dinner that night. It was a delicious!

Barbados Adventure.

The last weekend in April our ward had an auction to help send the youth to Girls Camp and High Adventure. Miles and I set our sites on a 7 day vacation through one of the ward members timeshares with RCI. And we won! We got a 7 day vacation at a 5 star resort (The Crane) in Barbados for $400, total! It was one of the greatest vacations I've been on. My mom joined in on the fun and was so nice to help us take care of Caiden, which allowed all of us to participate in activities. Caiden got his first two stamps on his passport! What a lucky boy! I waited 22 years to get a passport. We spent most of our time at the resort in the pools or at the beach. The Crane's beach was voted one of the top 10 beaches in the world. It was beautiful! Caiden loved being in the pool! 
We hopped on a catamaran and went on a snorkel excursion! The excursion was all day. They fed us lunch, which was delish. We stopped at 3 locations to snorkel with sea turtles (my favorite!), to see a ship wreck, and to play on a remote beach and snorkel for seashells. It was such a great day. Caiden swam in the ocean, Miles, my mom, and I all got to swim with the sea turtles, we all got to work on our tans and sample the local foods, and we danced on the ship! Caiden was a hit with the boat crew and Miles drove the sailboat. I would highly suggest Cool Runnings snorkel excursion to anyone traveling to Barbados. It was well worth every penny. 
We also hopped on a complimentary shuttle one day and headed in to Hamilton. It was really hot and humid and our clothes were sticking to our bodies! We didn't have a stroller with us so we had to take turns holding Caiden which made it even hotter. Somehow he still managed to nap in my mom's arms. If you travel to Barbados I seriously would not suggest going in to Hamilton. There isn't a whole lot to do or see and it's really spread out. 
I'm really grateful that we were able to go on this family vacation. It was relaxing and beautiful, and we missed the big hurricane that hit the east coast leaving most of CT without power for a few days. Caiden is spoiled that this was his first family vaca! Lucky boy.
Forewarning: there are A LOT of pictures. It was the vacation of a lifetime, would you expect any less from me?

 The view from our balcony of the 5 pools at the resort and the ocean next to it. 

 The living room and bedroom in our suite. Love the vaulted ceilings!

There was a cliff to jump from at the beach at The Crane.

 The view from our balcony at dusk.

 On the catamaran getting ready to snorkel!

I can now, officially, check this off my Top 25 Things I Want to do Before Turning 25 list!