"Another Tender Tennessee Christmas"

This is our fourth Christmas since we've been married and I think it was the best yet. Last night we went over to some friends' house and ate great food, enjoyed a nativity by the children,I got to speak in spanish all night with my Venezuelan friends and Peter spent the night arguing constitutional law with a lady at the party. It was perfect. We spent the ride home singing Jingle Bells the whole way because Laura insisted that we kept singing it. Each time the song ended, she would begin to yell "jingle" until we started singing again. When we got home, we each got to open up a present with pj's in them. I scored at Wal-Mart and found $1.50/yd fabric that was not entirely hideous. Peter thought the print wasn't quite manly enough for him but I thought the navy blue polka dot was kind of cute. And it was so fun to all have matching pajama pants.

After we put Laura to bed, we set up the play kitchen that we have been working on the last couple of weeks. I think it turned out so cute. I was so excited for her to see it. So by 6:30 am I was awake laying in bed wondering when Laura was going to wake up. By 7:30, Peter and I couldn't wait any longer so we woke her up and brought her down stairs to see what Santa had brought her.





She seemed pretty happy about it and immediately began going through the cupboards and pulling out the dishes and food. We helped her put on her little apron, chef hat, and oven mitt that I made to go with the kitchen and she looked so dang cute.

We spent the rest of the morning in our matching pj pants watching "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad World" which we got for Christmas from my brother Jeremy. It brought back a lot of memories of my childhood.
I love Christmas time! It is so wonderful to have my husband home all day and to be able to spend time with the two people I love most in the world.

What I'm grateful for:

1. A wonderful, kind husband.
2. An extrememly energetic and fun toddler.
3. That I'm 16 weeks pregnant with baby #2!

The Latin Dance Party

Our latin dance party was pretty much the best party ever. Really. It turned out even cuter than we imagined. Celebrating 5 people's birthday at the same party is really quite fun. My friend, Julie, who threw the party at her house did a great job decorating with our homemade birthday banners and hats. I loved the bright colors. My favorite part about the decorations were the brightly colored cakes. They took a long, long time to make due to the fact that I had one small cake pan and I was too cheap to buy another so I had to bake 10 cakes in order to make 5 double layer cakes. It was a lot of washing and regreasing that dang pan. Well, it wasn't even a cake pan, more like a casserole dish that happened to be just the right size. Each of the cakes had the initial of one of the birthday people on it. Really, how cute is that? We converted her upstairs into a dance floor with lights, a crystal ball and some ripped pieces of dyed sheets. Peter was a champ. For some one who hates latin dancing and latin music he was such a good sport. He danced with me and did a great job. Here are some action shots: And one of the best birthday presents was my friend Angela drove down from Iowa to be here at my birthday party. Angela was my latin dancing friend who went with me 3 times a week back in my single days. Sometimes 4 times a week. Here is a video of us dancing. (I just told Peter I was uploading this video and he told me he wants me to make it clear that this video does not represent the extent of his moves.)

Vacation, Vomit, a Very cute angel and a Very fun date

My sister-in-law, Cyndie, had a 5K run that she was participating in last weekend to earn money for ovarian cancer research. We wanted to be there and run as part of her team. So we decided to drive to North Carolina for the weekend and spend some time with them. We all participated in the race. Cyndie, Grandma Munk, and I jogged while the dads took up the rear (literally, I think they were the very last people) with a full double stroller and one walking child. About 5 minutes into the 5K, the walking child got injured and so Laura was taken out of the stroller and carried on Peter's shoulders the rest of the way. I was waiting at the finished line when they walked in at 59 minutes and I saw a very sad and very cold baby sitting on her daddy's shoulders. Peter said she cried the whole 59 minutes with out stopping. She spent the next hour cuddled up in a blanket on my chest. She seemed a little traumatized by the whole thing. I was glad that Daddy had the hard job so I could enjoy jogging the race. The park where we ran was so beautiful with misty lakes and trees with brightly colored fall leaves. If it weren't for the freezing cold weather, it would have been a perfect jog.

That night, the kids put on the costumes to go to the ward trunk-or-treat. Laura hated her costume and screamed every time I tried it on her. She hates when I sew things for her because I have to try in on her at various stages to make sure it is going to fit. So by the time I had finished this dress she already hated it and would run away every time she saw it. So we didn't get a whole lot of Halloween pictures with a smile.




She did, however, really enjoy the trick or treating part. She quickly caught on and would walk from trunk to trunk and hold out her little orange bucket and wait for a piece of candy to be placed in it.


That was the fun part of the trip. The not-so-fun part was the driving part. On the way there, about 2 hours into our trip, Laura threw up. A lot. Everywhere. We pulled over on the side of the road and spent 15 minutes trying our best to clean up our baby, the car seat and the back seat of Peter's car as best as we could with baby wipes. We spent the rest of the 7 hour trip in a very stinky car. When we got in our car Sunday morning to drive home, none of us where feeling very good and it didn't help that you could still vaguely smell the throw up from the previous car trip. A couple hours into the drive we had to pull over so I could throw up. An hour later, Laura threw up once again all over herself, the car seat, and the backseat. Once again we tried our best to clean the car, but the smell was horrible. A couple of hours later, we had to pull over so I could throw up again. Peter was strong until the end. About 35 minutes outside Nashville we pulled over to get gas and Peter threw up. The last 35 minutes were the worst because Peter was so sick and feverish he turned up the heat. I felt like I was in a vomit sauna. We were all feeling so sick and the car smelled horrible. Laura was the only one who seemed fine, except she was screaming because we wouldn't give her any crackers because we didn't want her throwing up again. When we got home, Peter dragged himself into the house, sat in a hot bath tub for 30 minutes and then went straight to bed. I had to haul in all the stuff from the car, clean up the throw up off the seat, start some loads of throw up laundry and clean up a very stinky car seat. It was a horrible day. The good news is we woke up the next morning feeling great. The bad news is Cyndie's family woke up the next morning feeling horrible and spent the whole day throwing up. Well, at least it wasn't in the back seat of their car. Peter and I went out on a date last night to celebrate our shared birthday. He lined up the babysitter and planned the whole thing. It was awesome. He took me to Red Robin where we both got free dinner for our birthday. (Peter made fun of me for this at the time, but I signed us up a couple of months ago when I heard that Red Robin gives you a free hamburger each year on your birthday. I thought awesome, we will have a totally free dinner each year on our birthday since we both eat free. I think our waitress thought we were trying to work the system, but we could have proved it if she looked at our drivers license.) So we splurged and got appetizer and dessert, mostly because we felt bad if our meal was totally free.
After our totally unhealthy but pretty delicious dinner, Peter then took me to Steinnmart to buy me something pretty. It was a perfect b-day celebration. And now I am looking forward to my latin dance birthday party my friend is hosting for us this Saturday. It's going to be awesome! And my friend, Angela is driving down for the weekend to be here for it. It's going to be a great birthday weekend!

Happy Fall

I both love and hate fall. I love it because the weather is beautiful and the leaves are gorgeous. I hate it because I know winter is right around the corner. I took advantage of the pretty scenery to takes some pictures of Laura.

New Hampshire

Peter got offered a summer job in Manchester, New Hampshire this morning and he accepted it! We are very happy to have secured such a great job and I am especially happy to be neighbors with my sister, Kashann and her family. The Casper family did their best to leave all family and friends behind by moving clear across the country, but it looks like we will be following them there.

To celebrate I went on a 5 mile bike ride with a friend. This was my first real bike ride ever. I never learned to ride a bike as a child. We had bumpy, dirt, farm roads that weren't great for learning how to ride bikes. We did have a concrete basketball court area but it was so small, I had to learn to ride while doing circles because it wasn't long enough in either direction to continue straight once you finally got going. So, I never learned... until today. I wish I had a video to post of the experience. I must have looked pretty funny, a grown woman gripping onto both handlebars swerving on and off the bike path. The funniest part was seeing the looks on the people's faces that we past. And, I didn't crash once. (Unless you count the time I ran into the fence, but I didn't actually fall of the bike. I just got a really big bruise where my leg hit the fence.) I found it very exhilarating.

We went canoeing last Saturday with some friends. It was a beautiful day and the river was gorgeous. I love how green Tennessee is!



Peter told me I didn't need to wear my swimsuit since we wouldn't be getting wet. I figured if we were in a canoe on the water, there was a very good chance that we would get wet. And I was right. Half way through our trip, the canoe tipped over and we both took a little swim. This was the spot of the dangerous rapids were we tipped. It looks pretty dangerous, right?


We had a relief society activity with a 50's soda shop theme. I was one of the waitresses who took orders and served the food. We were asked to come dressed in 50's theme. This is what my friend and I came up with. The skirts are made out of tablecloths and sheets from Goodwill. The rollerskates were my favorite part. I found these at a thrift store for $9. A little spendy for me, but now I own a pair of rollerskates. Not quite sure what I will do with them in the future, but don't be surprised if you come over to my house and find doing my housework with my rollerskates on.

Sunday Nap

I decided to take a nap after church today. Peter was kind enough to watch Laura while I slept. I woke up an hour later to see my baby running around naked with no diaper on. Then I saw a mysterious looking puddle on the floor. I pointed it out to Peter. When he saw it he said, "Laura, I trusted you!"

Pictures from our road trip to UT and WA

Laura did better than expected in the car, considering how much she hates sitting in her carseat. For the most part she was happy and entertained herself with cheerios and sippy cups.


The hardest part about leaving TN was leaving my little "garden" on my back deck. We had a friend that tried to water them for us while we were gone, but it has been too hot here and they are about 65% dead. I'm hoping to coax them back to life.



Laura had so much swimming at Priest Lake.


I made Laura and I skirts for the Fourth of July.


Laura and Great Grandpa Fielding

Laura at 13 months

Laura just keeps getting more and more fun. I love this age. She is constantly jabbering all day long (Peter says she takes after her mother) and often times she gets lucky and stumbles across real words. For the past few weeks she has been walking around the house saying, "guys!" like she has an announcement to make and wants everyone to hear. Her vocabulary also includes: "uh-oh," "mama," "dada," "hi" (which she says to everyone in the grocery store), "oh yeah" and "wow."

She also loves to accessorize. She is constantly putting things on her head, around her neck, on her hands, etc. Maybe it is my fault for telling her how pretty she when I put a flower on her head to try to encourage her not to rip it off. Now she thinks she can put anthing on her head, or elsewhere, and she looks pretty. This includes, scraps of fabric, food, toys, etc. All day long she is collecting items and sticking them somewhere on herself. Then she will go look in the mirror and giggle at herself. The other day she was walking around with this pink shirt on her head for 5 minutes. She couldn't see anything so she kept running into walls and furniture but I guess she thought it was so pretty she couldn't take it off.



She is a super happy baby and is so easy. Which means that my life is easy since my only responsibility is to take care of her. She is especially good when there are other children around.

I also love having a little model to practice my sewing. Most of her wardrobe consists of little dresses I have made her. In fact, I think I need to chill on sewing her more clothes. But I am just having so much fun. Everything looks good on her so she makes me feel like I am a better seamstress than I am. Trust me, I tried to make a skirt for myself last week and it was a total disaster. So, I am just going to stick with sewing Laura's wardrobe. I also made her a white sun hat to protect her from the ridiculously, hot TN sun.




Laura recently learned to give five and give kisses. I love those slobbery kisses! And when you ask her "where's your head" she sticks both hands on her head and smiles. When asked "where's your nose" she sticks her finger in her mouth. We are still working on that one.

What we've been up to

After what seems like forever, Laura has finally decided that she is ready to start walking. And I am loving it. She just keeps getting more and more fun.


I took Laura to our favorite park to go on a walk and it was such a gorgeous day we had to take a couple of pictures. I am loving spring in TN. The last few years I have been in Utah for the spring. I hate spring weather in Utah. Really, does it have to continue to snow until June? Maybe in a couple of months, when my clothes are sticking to my wet, sticky body, I will be missing Utah's more moderate summer weather.





Isn't she starting to look so much like her father? Everyone tells us she looks like a little Peter.



Grandma Munk came to stay with us several weeks ago and we loved having her here. She even let us share her birthday with us. It was a great opportunity to try out the birthday banner and hats I just made.



And last but not least, I have little blossoms all over my vegetable plants! About a month ago, I built these homemade earthboxes following an online tutorial. I wanted to have a garden, but didn't have a spot to put it. So I built these to put on my deck.



And now, a little over a month later, my tomato, squash, zucchini, and cucumbers are covered in little yellow blossoms. I love gardening. Even if it is in a cheap, plastic tub. It is so exciting to watch plants grow.