A Few Firsts

This past year has been full of so many firsts and lasts for me! Here are a few of the most recent ones:

Morgan's first snotty nose - she's finally not looking like an open-mouth cod fish out of water! Poor girl hasn't breathed through her nose for almost a week. This increases the drool factor and snorting while decreasing the sleep at night (for the whole house) and interest in food. I think we're on the upside of it now.

The perfect dinner roll - I've been on a search for the perfect dinner roll that doesn't have a recipe that gives me the jitters on first glance. The current winner came from a Swedish cookbook published in the 1950s. I had to call my Nana and find out what a "cake" of yeast was. Turns out they don't really sell yeast in the form any more....the normal little packets work just fine. These rolls were great with my soup!

A "hit" food at a party - I'm not exactly Betty Crocker, though her and I do team up for dinner occasionally, and I've never managed to bring a food to a party that has been a total hit. Until yesterday! We went to a pumpkin carving party at a friend's house and I brought a pumpkin dip that is super yummy...and everyone loved it! The recipe is from Sister Miles, the Young Women secretary in my ward. She apparently got it from a Hilary Hunt (no relation).

Pumpkin Dip

• 8 oz cream cheese, softened
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 can pumpkin (15 oz)
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ginger

Beat sugar and cream cheese until smooth. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix until well blended. Cover and chill. Will last 5 days. Great for dipping pears, apples, and ginger snaps.

Chadwick carved an awesome little pumpkin - he's amazing! And go Broncos!
I have a confession to make about the pumpkin. We've known about this pumpkin carving party for several weeks. Since the birth of our little girl, I've been much less organized than in the past. So Saturday night as we're getting ready for bed I am thinking about Sunday - my lesson, the party.....the party...we need a pumpkin! To avoid having to go to the store on the Sabbath, Chadwick's brother James and his family were nice enough to donate this one to us. Thanks, guys!

Morgan is up on all fours - she is so close to crawling! She can pull herself to her knees on my legs or the sides of the pack-n-play, she reaches for things out of reach while in a crawling position, and she can take about one step before landing on her stomach. She's so strong! I've been wanting her to crawl to increase her independence....and I think this wish may come back to bite me. =)

The Big 3-0

Each year for two weeks in October, my home town hosts the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. Thirty years ago last Saturday, my parents watched the hot air balloons drift over the city from their hospital room at St. John's where I was born.

Yes, I have officially left my 20s and moved into the 30s. Some of my friends were excited to leave their 20s, others hated the thought. I was indifferent to the new numbers of my age, but with the help of my wonderful husband and mother-in-law, I threw myself a party. Friends, pizza, cake and ice cream.....the works! We had a good time enjoying the company of one another.

My uncle was in Boise for a half marathon and was able to join us - it was fun to see him for a bit! I don't know how is race went, but he's an accomplished runner and likely had no trouble. He's met a goal of running a race in each state. Idaho down, Alaska and Hawaii left. Way to go, John!






The cake was one of my favorites, German chocolate. (FYI, my mom mailed a creme de menthe chocolate chip cake to our house Friday....it was to die for and a good, spoil Julie tradition) No, it did not have thirty candles, which is probably good since I couldn't blow them all out anyway! Depressing! The photo on the right is me face planting on the counter trying in vain to extinguish the last candle. I must be getting old. =)






And this picture is too cute not to share! Madeline, Alivia, and Morgan - they will be such good friends in a few years! Alivia and Morgan are 5 days apart (Morgan is younger) and Madeline is 2 weeks younger than the other two. Turns out it's hard to get all three babies to smile at the same time.
Overall, a good day. On to new adventures as a 30-year-old!

Our Harvest!

After much waiting and good luck with warm weather into the month of October (where did September go??), we are now enjoying the fruits of our labor in the garden.



Two nights ago, we had some beets and corn with our chicken pot pie.







I ate the first of our many tomatoes when Nana and Bop-bop were in town - right off the vine!

Granted, our garden is not large, but I'm so excited to be getting something! Two peppers are maturing and the carrots are waiting to be plucked.....not bad for our first attempt!










Random pictures of the pets....Darwin loves to run around the backyard, especially when he has an audience. He may not be bright, but he's sure happy! And Cleo finds comfortable places to sleep on funny objects. In the picture she's on our bed, on top of a piece of paper and one of Morgan's blankets. Such a princess!

Great Grandparents!

There must something about becoming a grandparent - the kids (me, for example), who have been so loved and potentially spoiled for their entire lives, are pushed onto the back burner in favor of the "grandchild." They ask how you are doing as an afterthought. They demand pictures....weekly. If becoming a grandparent is great, it must be that much better to be a great grandparent, right?

We had the opportunity to visit with my maternal grandparents - Nana and Bop-bop - this last week. They flew in from Albuquerque, made it through the Salt Lake City airport in one piece, rented a car, and spent many hours laughing at the antics of our little Morgan. It was such fun watching them interact with her and in turn to watch her become more comfortable with their presence by the end of the week. They took tons of pictures, which will be coming to the blog in several weeks.

Wednesday afternoon found us at the zoo - Morgan's first zoo experience! I don't think she saw many of the animals, but she had a good time watching people from the front of her stroller.

I loved the fact that at the beginning of the week, Bop-bop suggested a visit to the zoo. "Then I can get a hot dog!" he exclaimed. He was like a kid! I wasn't sure if there were hot dogs to be found at the zoo, but Zoo Boise didn't disappoint us.



Morgan also drove her first car, a safari humvee from Africa.



And, of course, a photo of Nana and her long lost relatives. (There is a monkey in the background) Ha!

Happy Birthday, Dear Chadwick, Happy Birthday to You!

Happy birthday, Chadwick! Thirty-one years young and still going strong. I am so grateful that you were born in a time when we could find one another!

We had a mini celebration that evening (Steve and Nancy joined us for dessert) and will have one with the rest of the family this afternoon. He came down with a head cold on Wednesday so we decided to keep it low-key. My mom sent him a cookie bouquet at work and for dinner we ate lasagna with French bread! Yum. Pillsbury and I worked together to create a chocolate cake to accompany our ice cream. Complete with candles! He was kind enough not to blow them out and spread his cold germs in the process...

Morgan didn't like the ice cream I offered her to celebrate. Too cold.

Many of his family members called to wish him happy birthday. When his twin, Stephen, called my phone, I happily chatted with him for a moment before passing him to Chadwick. It didn't occur to me until later in their conversation that it was also Stephen's birthday as well. So happy belated birthday, Stephen!

Here's to many more!!

Morgan's Numbers

Time flies when you're having fun! Last Thursday, Morgan turned 6 months old. Hard to believe! This is a photo of a cross stitch my Nana made for the little lady at birth.

Here are some other numbers:
Dozens of smiles per day
15.8 pounds
25 1/4 inches long
3 feedings of cereal each day - oatmeal and rice
2 veggies - sweet potatoes and green beans
1 fruit - pears



This was Morgan when I went in to wake her from an afternoon nap several weeks ago. Total faceplant! She woke up happy and with lines on her face from the linens....




Our little garden is trying to grow. There's only about a month left in the growing season, so we'll see what, if anything, we reap. We have lots of green tomatoes, we've eaten 4 little green beans, there's 1 ear of corn starting to appear, and the beets and carrots are doing well. The peppers....are growing tall but not producing much. So we'll mix in more horse manure and try again next year!

Changes

In the last two weeks, Morgan has blossomed. She's confidently rolling all over the living room (depicted here, the first photo is where I laid her, the second is where I found her).









She loves her oatmeal and rice cereals, though she's not sure she's fond of sweet potatoes. She is starting to drink from a sippy cup and loves to hold the handles herself. Anything within grabbing distance is fair game. And in the last few days she's started sitting up on her own! She still turfs over backwards when she gets excited, but she's doing super well on the other three sides. Each of her stages amazes me, and I'm continuously surprised at how quickly she tries and then masters things.

Several weeks ago the three of us drove to Belgrade, MT (near Bozeman) to visit a vet school classmate who is working with his dad at a mixed animal practice there. On the way up we had dinner with a vet friend working in Dillon, MT. The weekend was one of fly fishing, and Nick and Chadwick did as much as they could! The fish weren't biting tons, but they had a good time getting out for a while. We went for a hike Sunday morning - boy am I out of shape! Luckily, Chadwick carried Morgan or I would have died.
She promptly fell asleep.

The animals are doing great, though I caught Darwin playing with a rock in his mouth the other night....we'll see where this leads us. Never a dull moment here!