Bad Hair Year

There are a lot of things no one tells you about pregnancy. Some of these things can be downright shocking to experience, but in my opinion, it's the crazy stuff that lingers with you far after you give birth that really gets frustrating. For example, no one told me that ALL of my hair was going to fall out in huge clumps every time I shower, comb it, bump up against something, walk, breathe . . . . you get the picture. Thankfully, the falling out part has slowed down a ton. But now, I get to deal with the far less attractive growing back in stage. I really should have gone with my gut and dressed as Hermione for Halloween this year. I have these tufts . . . oh, it's bad. Anyway, this is just a heads up to anyone who will experience this phenomenon in the future and also an explanation to those who are wondering why I have inch long bangs sprouting from my forehead.

Also, I am not ashamed to say that I did not walk away from pregnancy without stretch marks. I would like to think that I am not the only one so I want to share my amazing find with you. Boots Botanics Stretch mark Corrector Cream. Amazing. I have been using it for about 3 weeks and my stretch marks have pretty much disappeared. It's a little pricey ($12 at Target) but you don't need much and it's simply amazing. Okay, now we will never speak of this again.

Goals

In Sunday School this week we were all asked to write down a list of 5 goals that we have. I was shocked to find out that I couldn't think of anything! I mean, I'm a planner, a thinker aheader, an over analyzer . . . with no goals. Well, nothing besides: take a shower everyday, lose that last 5 pounds, make it through the day. The usual. I have always had goals in my life but, is it sad to say that most of the goals I made growing up only went as far as motherhood? I am truly blessed to have achieved so much at 23. I am married in the temple, have started a beautiful family, got my degree, and so forth. But I really never thought much about what I want to do next. So, I have been thinking and I am going to come up with 5 new goals for my life (or more, if I can). I want to be the ambitious girl that wrote a list of 65+ goals for my life. I guess I can check getting my driver's license off that list . . . and going on a date. Anyway, now that I am a "grown up" it's time to start thinking ahead again. And while some days I may only be able to live one day at a time, I want to live my life to the fullest and know that I achieved everything I ever dreamed.

Conundrum

As most of you know, we have only lived here for a few months. We are renting a duplex and there are a lot of really good things about where we live. I'll tell you about those later, when I think of some. I'm sure you know that renting anywhere has it's ups and downs. We truly are blessed to have found so many decent places to live from out of state. However, I have a problem here. As I said, we live in a duplex so we share all the walls on one half of the house. I have met our neighbors: a man and his two teenage daughters. well, I met him once and once his oldest daughter borrowed my phone because she locked herself out of the house. They are relatively quiet and seem nice. Here's the problem- loud bathing. That's right, nearly every morning between FOUR and FIVE THIRTY someone next door is taking an incredibly loud, squeaky bath. I know that I am a light sleeper but who does this?! Sometimes they even wake up Nathan, and that's crossing the line. I would describe the sounds I am woken up to as a drunk elephant trying to do ballet in a bathtub. No one needs to drop the shampoo bottle 15 hundred times!

Okay, so I am writing this to vent, but also because I need some advice. How does one handle something like this? I don't want to confront them and make it worse and it just feels kind of awkward to talk to someone I really don't know about their bathing habits. HELP!!!

8 months old!

Nathan is 8 months old today. I can't believe that in just 4 short months I will have a 1 year old. Where does the time go?! He is such a good, happy boy and we love every minute we get to spend with him. He loves to roll around on the floor like a little tumbleweed. He has no interest in sitting but I think he will be crawling soon. He is also just learning how to feed himself finger foods. We can't wait to share Christmas with our special boy.

Nathan loves his binky. I'm not complaining because I actually get to listen a little bit in sacrament meeting.

Chewing on the TV remote, as usual.

With his two favorite things.

And a smiling one because Grandma Betty says, "Most mothers try to get their babies to smile for pictures." And because I love his smile!

Calories Don't Count on Thanksgiving

We had so much fun visiting my family in Washington for Thanksgiving. It was the first time I had been home for Thanksgiving since high school!

Get me out of this car already!

We got there just in time to celebrate my brother Jesse's 14th birthday on the 25th. My mom made him a yummy Reese's ice cream cake. And so it began . . .

Ryan and I stayed up until 1 the night before Thanksgiving so he could make apple pies. Things got a little out of hand.

We celebrated a low-key Thanksgiving with just my family, minus my older brother, Ryan. He got to eat with my in-laws in Rigby.

Even Nathan enjoyed turkey, sweet potatoes, apple, and pumpkin

The day after Thanksgiving we hung out with my dear friend Alex and her husband, Devan and their daughter, Hannah. I really miss living near them in Utah!

Hannah is almost exactly a year older than Nathan, and as you can see, they are about the same size!

The birthday buddies with their babies

Me and Alex, friends since 5th grade!

We got Hannah to kiss Nathan (it didn't take much) and he really seemed to like it! I think we've got trouble on our hands!

My sister Leslie talked us into giving Nathan his first mohawk.

Teaching Nathan to play the piano.

We are so glad we got to spend time with family! Hopefully I can get caught up on the unpacking and laundry before we do it again in 3 weeks!

With Nana and Papa

With Uncle Kevin

Nathan's Christmas Wish List

• A Light Switch
• Junk Mail
• Anything with a Tag
• Whatever Mom and Dad are eating
• TV Remotes
• Computer Keyboard
• Cell Phone (but not his toy cell phone)
• 1 Clothing/Diaper free day

What's Up?

Ryan and I LOVE Pixar movies so when we saw previews for "Up" we got really excited. We never really see movies in theaters, and even if we did this movie came out not long after Nathan was born and we were a little busy. So we decided to wait until it came out on DVD and then just buy it as an anniversary gift since it was in theaters around our anniversary. Little did we know we would be waiting 6 months! Well, this week it finally came to DVD so Ryan and I had a much needed date night. We watched "Up" and ate push-ups and fruit roll-ups, of course. It was a fun night and the movie was not a disappointment!