CrAzY WeeK!

We have had one of the busiest week of our summer this last week! It's been crazy and a lot of fun. Monday night we went to Lagoon for Mike's mom's stake Lagoon Day. It was Aiva's first trip to Lagoon. We rode the carousel and the train ride. The coolest part was when the train went past the tigers. For some reason, one of the tigers was pretty angry and started roaring at us! It was exciting but also a little scary! I've never seen that in real life. Wish I'd taken pictures . . .

Mommy and Aiva at Lagoon

On Wednesday, Mike's good friend Jake Martineau got married, so we were attending those festivities all day, including the wedding dinner the night before. Jake and Julie are the CUTEST couple, and we are so happy for them. It's one of those couples you just don't worry about at all. They will be so happy - we love them both! Congrats guys!

Thursday night all of Mike's friends from high school got together at one of their homes and we had a BBQ! Mike is so lucky to have made such great friends in high school. EVERYONE is just so nice! You know how MOST girls are very territorial of "their boys," even the ones who are just friends? And how it's not always fun being the girl to butt in and start dating one of said boys because of that??? Well, these girls are not that way at all. So this group of guys and girls are all still friends, and now also friends with each other's spouses. It's pretty dang cool.

Our Aiva & Annabelle Jarrett

Friday was our ward party. Also good times. Saturday morning I went garage sale shopping, one of my pasttimes, and found Aiva some cute clothes. Later, my dad and his wife Raye met us at Layton City Park and we had a picnic to celebrate Aiva's birthday, which is Monday. Aiva LOVED feeding the ducks, but thought they were dogs, and kept calling them such. She also loves the swings and slides. The most memorable part, though, was the group of fully grown adults (like 30- and 40-year-olds) participating in some kind of knights-in-armour club. Seriously, it looked like we'd stepped into Monty Python and the Holy Grail. They were going at eachother with swords and shields, and were jousting. It was AWESOME!!!!! And of course, Saturday evening we had to watch MICHAEL PHELPS win his 8th gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. What an incredible part of sports history to have witnessed!! We have really enjoyed watching the olympics so far. Way to go Michael Phelps!!!!!

Aiva modeling her new jacket that mommy got for $1.00!!!
And in MINT condition!

My dad and Raye walking with Aiva

Check out the knights in the background!!

To top off our amazing week, Aiva has mastered walking! Also along with that . . . falling. She has acquired her first black eye by falling on a chair at Grandma Cole's, and today at church she fell on her head/face 4 times, I think, followed by major crying and needed to be taken out of the class. It is so fun to watch her learn to master these new skills! I guess my baby is a toddler now???? Her 1st birthday is TOMORROW!! :) / :( I don't quite know how to feel about it. But either way, we are going to have a party! More about that to come!!!!

TOMORROW IS FINALLY HERE . . .

Okay . . . I have to admit, I have been sucked into the Twilight craze. Yes, that's right. And TOMORROW the 4th and final book Breaking Dawn comes out, and I am OOOOOHHHHH, SOOOOOOOOO EXCITED!!!!! Just had to do a quick shout-out about that.

And, as I have found that there are many differing opinions on what route the plot should take, I thought I'd clear mine up:

Go EDWARD!!!
and . . . Bella should TOTALLY become a vampire. :)

Okay. Sorry about my litte rant. I'm just very excited for tomorrow. :)

PICS OF OUR LATEST ADVENTURES . . .

We went to Cherry Hill with Megan & Bentley,
and Katie & Jackson. We had a ball! I wish I'd
taken more pictures, but we were having so much fun, we
forgot all about the camera!
Aiva was scared at first, but after she had time to
adjust to all the new sights and sounds she loved it!

We went through the doll isle at Walmart and I handed Aiva
this baby and she LIT UP and hung onto that doll for dear life.
I ended up buying her her first baby doll.

Aiva LOVES walking. She feels like such a big girl when she
walks around with this walker - and she lights up when she sees it.

I'm sure every mom thinks their baby looks like
an angel when they sleep . . . I'm no exception.

Looking out our front room window.

Ogden City's fireworks at Weber State University:
Aiva's first big fireworks show. I was expecting a lot
of tears, but she did very well. She kept saying, "ba...ba...ba"
which means "ball." :)

Growing up so fast . . .

I feel like in the last couple of weeks my baby is leaving the baby stage. It makes me sad, in a way. I think back on those first, quiet days when I would just sit and admire my new little baby as she slept. I remember the joy that I felt, the way that my heart suddenly felt different. It makes me sad that the days are passing so quickly. It feels too quick. Like my time with her is sand slipping through my fingertips, and I just can't catch it. But I'm only sad when I stop to think about it. Day to day, I am LOVING watching my little girl grow up and learn new things. It is so amazing to watch her little personality develop. It seems like she is learning something new every day! The latest:

* She says "ma-ma" (me and anyone else she wants), "ba" (ball), and "baba" (baby).
No "dada" yet, but we think she's teasing Mike, because we'll tell her to say

"dada" and she'll look right at him and say "mama!" with a huge

grin on her face.

* Going backward down the stairs - HOORAY!

No more gates! This is something that we have

working on since she started to crawl.

* Aiva loves to walk by pushing ANYTHING. Anything

that isn't nailed to the floor she will use as a walker.

* She took her first steps on Thursday!

* Today I was leaving for work and I asked Aiva to give me

a kiss, and she leaned forward and gave me the

wettest, sloppiest, sweetest kiss! It melted my heart!

4th of July weekend

We had such a fun 4th of July this year! Where Memorial Day is the holiday where we always get together with Mike's family, the 4th is the one that belongs to my family. In years past, we've always just spent the day near home, and watched Layton City's fireworks at Layton Park. This year we did something a little bit different. My mom's boyfriend Koji got a deal at Zermatt Resort in Heber, and Mike and I, Koji and my mom, my sister Chelsee and Koji's sons Jared and Brett all got to go up there for a night and a couple days. For those of you who have never been to Zermott, it is really amazing. Besides the natural setting being gorgeous, the resort is also made to feel very European, and the entire experience was fantastic! We went mini-golfing, swimming, rode the carousel they have there, played sliderboard, watched the fireworks Friday tnight, and we also ate at Schneitter's, a very nice restaurant that is on the Resort campus. Friday night they had a seafood buffet, and we ate salmon and shrimp and crab legs to our hearts' content. I'm drooling thinking of all that crab. Yummmm . . . However, the best part of this whole thing for me was getting to know Koji and two of his kids. For this first time in seven years, I am seeing my mom with a man who knows how to treat her right. Also for the first time, I have found that maybe it really will be possible to blend families and actually have it feel like a FAMILY. I've always been hesitant to get to know my mom's boyfriends and their families. It is just so personal. But I really genuinely had a lot of fun and felt very comfortable with Koji's kids. We stayed up laughing and playing games after Koji and my mom fell asleep. I have hope that one day my dream of blending families into an even better family might one day happen.

This cute little carousel is right outside in the courtyard of the resort.

She LOVED the carousel. We rode on it about 4 times,
and she just laughed and laughed.

Aiva was so scared of the swimming pool at first.
You can tell that she's trying to be happy, but not quite sure about this.

After about an hour, starting to have fun.

She clung onto us like this for about 45 minutes before
she was comfortable enough to let go.

TagGeD!

Four places I visit over & over:
1. My mom's
2. Super Walmart in Clinton
3. Robert's Arts and Crafts
4. Mike's parents' home

Four People who e-mail-txt me regularly:
1. Mike
2. My mom
3. my sister-in-law Sarah
4. Shelly

Four favorite foods:
1. Cold CEREAL!!
2. Italian pasta!!!!
3. Pizza
4. Chinese

Four places I'd rather be:
1. St. George
2. anywhere warm with a beach
3. the Holy Land - I would LOVE to go there!
4. At home . . . I'm such a homebody

Four movies I'd watch over & over:
1. The King and I (the old one)
2. August Rush
3. The Lord of the Rings trilogy
4. ELF

Bands/Groups I love to listen to:
1. Enya
2. Linkin Park (just a few songs, but I love them.)
3. Instrumental music
4. Dashboard Confessional

Four People I am tagging:
1. April
2. Stacy
3. Heidi
4. Emily

BABIES AND CHURCH DO NOT MIX . . .

Today was a rough day. Sundays are always stressful, trying to take care of a VERY active ten-month-old all by myself. My day starts out very, very early. Since Mike is gone to bishopric meetings all morning, I have to be sure to get up before Aiva does so I can take my shower and get ready. Lately, she's been getting up earlier than usual, so today I got up even before Mike. Right on cue, as I'm getting out of the shower, Aiva woke up. The rest of my morning is spent trying to feed Aiva and myself, do my makeup and hair (while trying to keep Aiva from emptying the garbage can or unrolling the entire roll of toilet paper) and as of this morning, she's decided that she is deathly afraid of my blowdryer. Church has been kind a joke lately, but today . . . I feel like my happy, sweet little ten-month-old has turned suddenly into a two-year old. She is really not very entertained by toys. She would much rather be crawling all over the chapel, or hitting the person sitting closest to us (although I try to maintain a very wide berth between us and anyone else) or throwing her toys behind the pew where I can't get to them, or trying to tear pages out of the hymn books. And the worst part is that when I try to put a stop to any of these things, Aiva throws a tantrum. Yes, my ten-month-old is throwing tantrums. Which includes arching her back, and going into dead-weight mode, and screaming. Meanwhile, I can see my husband sitting up on the stand smiling at us. I'm sure it's funny to watch. But I am exhausted. You see, nine o'clock is about Aiva's nap time. And she doesn't get to take that nap until church is over three hours later. So we aren't making it much past the sacrament before I take her out in the hall. Today I tried taking her to a dark, quiet room and just holding her, but she screamed bloody-murder for about ten minutes before I gave up and just let her roam the halls, with me trailing behind her. Mike was a good help today during Sunday School, but I ended up leaving right before Relief Society. I just didn't have it in me to wrestle with Aiva for another hour, as I could already see the tears swimming just thinking about it. Most of the time I can keep a sense of humor about this whole thing, but today I just didn't have the patience that I needed. Does anyone have any suggestions??? How can you discipline a baby that is too young to understand? Is there something little that I can do NOW to start teaching her that some behaviors are inappropriate? I don't expect to be able to get a lot out of church right now, but I'm so tired of fighting with my very strong-willed child for three straight hours (somewhere my mom is singing the sweet songs of revenge). I feel guilty, because today is one of the first days that I have really looked at my baby and felt resentment. Most of all, I'm thinking, HOW IN THE HECK AM I GOING TO DO THIS WHEN I HAVE ANOTHER ONE???