Happy 4 years!

Tomorrow is our fourth anniversary! We have now officially been married longer than we dated. :)




I love this good man and I have loved seeing him as a father this year. It's no wonder than one of Charlie's first and favorite words is "Dad."

Here's some of our "greatest hits":

-Our healthy, beautiful, life-altering, joy-filled, sweet, funny baby boy

-Great concerts, including Coldplay, Muse, Sara Bareilles, Ingrid Michaelson, Keane, The Police, and Sarah McLaughlin

(Coldplay, 2008)



-Memorable trips to London; Austin, Texas, New York City; Philadelphia; Chicago; Las Vegas; Disneyland; Sun Valley, Idaho; and Moab, Utah

(London, 2006)



-Dozens of birthday dinners (including family members)

(here we are on my 21st birthday)

-8 Halloweens

(as trailer trash in 2003)

-Hundreds of dates

(all dressed up for U of U Homecoming 2003)

-and 5 bands, 2 campaigns, 2 legislative sessions, 3 cars, 7 moves, 13 jobs, 6.5 years serving in Primary, 2 nephews and 1 niece

It's been a great life so far and I'm looking forward to a whole lifetime more! Love you, Johnny!!

Christmas 2009 (aka Charlie's! First! Christmas!)

We had a lot of pressure this year to ensure that Charlie's! First! Christmas! would go well. Luckily, it seemed we were successful in our preparations and a good time was had by all. We are fortunate enough to live close to both of our families and because of that we were included in many holiday celebrations. (Although, when talking to my sister about her very low-key, peaceful, homey, SIMPLE Christmas in the Middle East, it sounded heavenly to me. The hustle and bustle of scurrying around I could live without!)

My favorite thing about Christmas this year is a new tradition that John and I started. After all the guests had gone home and Charlie was asleep, we sat under the Christmas tree and opened our gifts to each other late on Christmas Eve. It was really special to spend that time just the two of us!

Charlie received some great gifts from loving family members but of course, he was more interested in the orange and apple from my stocking (because they are balls to him!) and all the boxes and wrapping paper.

Here's a few photos:

Christmas tree bokeh

Even my normally friendly baby found Santa a little frightening!

On Christmas Eve, we hosted my brother's family and in-laws for a Christmas Eve dinner pajama party. We had the most gigantic breakfast for dinner (scones, fruit, bacon, hash browns, quiche) and opened a few presents.

Charlie the champion crawler loved "helping" Daddy vacuum (which to our surprise, he isn't afraid of at all!) (Please notice my mom's awesome Christmas jammies).

Kerry (my sister-in-law) and her sister, Kristin, checking out the Christmas cards

Uncle Steve and Charlie

Our little family on Charlie's! First! Christmas!

"Ho Ho Ho, Merry Christmas!"

Sam was excited to open up a new sled

And Grandpa Marty helped Sam and Lily try out their new sleds right away!

Charlie and Grandma Bev

Charlie and Auntie Barb

Charlie was mesmerized by the Christmas tree
(notice the lack of ornaments on the lowest branches)

On Christmas morning, we went to Steve and Kerry's house to open more presents!

Grandpa Marty helping Sam put together Lego models- Sam was occupied by this for hours!

The whole crew- (clockwise from middle) Lily, Steve, Grandma Bev, Charlie, Barb, Grandpa Marty, Grandma Peggy, Kerry and Sam (not pictured: Kristin and Johnny)

Lily and Sam picked out the cutest gifts for Charlie- one of which, a singing pig (not pictured), he loves dancing along

Sam and Lily were all about opening gifts and when they moved onto the next one, Charlie was all about playing with their momentarily discarded toys!

Later Christmas Day, we gathered at Grandma and Grandpa T's house for a luncheon, opening gifts, playing Rock Band, watching movies, and talking to our missionary, Elder Sam!

Jeff, Breea, Charlie and John playing RockBand (Breea and Charlie were playing the yoga ball- a very important instrument)

Baby James- check out his awesome Rudolf slippers!

What a cute little Christmas elf!

Anne was a perky Santa

I love this picture of Charlie and Uncle Jeff because you can see some of Charlie's little dimples. Precious.

John's a perky elf, too

The whole crew (L-R: Mark, Grandpa T, James, Chelsea, Grandma T, Anne, Jeff, Kate, Breea, Dave, Charlie, Barb, and Johnny)


All lined up, youngest to oldest, waiting to go open presents. Poor Anne- Sam is finally gone on a mission and she got booted out of first place by the babies. ;) I love this photo because James is so excited to grab Chelsea's hat and Charlie can't quite figure out what we're doing.

Charlie helped Daddy open his stocking

Dave and Breea, Mark and James

Anne, Kate, Jeff and Uncle Jim

The Sunday after Christmas, we had our ward choir program. My mom made John and Charlie matching Christmas vests! Aren't they dapper?

John, my mom and I are all in the choir so we needed someone to watch Charlie. Steve came to tend him and Charlie fell asleep in his arms! He shall now be known as the Baby Whisperer.



It was a great holiday. I'm so glad my mom could be here to celebrate with us! However, I missed being with Richard, Cat and my dad. It was a little tricky to work in Charlie's napping schedule while being shuffled around to so many different places but there were plenty of people willing to hold and love him!!

Heartsick for Haiti

Today I have had the people of Haiti on my mind and in my heart. Please read this excellent post by Chris Sacca (via Dooce) about six ways you can help now. I am also so thankful and pleased to read this article about the humanitarian aid that the LDS church and Islamic Relief USA have partnered to send to Haiti. I am so happy that my church can be one of the first responders to this tragedy and that it has such a great relationship with the Islamic humanitarian aid branch. I have donated and I hope you will, too!

1 week vs. 9 months

My sister-in-law, Kerry, aka She Who Is Like Unto Aphrodite (SWILUA), requested the comparison shots of Charlie at 1 week and Charlie now. I don't like to mess with Divine Goddesses, so I of course, complied. :)

Charlie, 1 week old

Charlie, 9 months old

Charlie- 9 months old

Not a cheerful picture- he was mad that I wouldn't let him stand up in the rocking chair

Charlie turned 9 months old on Christmas day! He's turning into such a big boy and I'm amazed at how quickly he masters new skills now. He weighs 24 lbs (almost exactly) and is 29 inches long/tall which lands him still in the 90's percentage wise. Here is what he's up to recently:

-Exploring new facial expressions, like this one:

... and this one, where he puts his eyebrows waaayy up when he's excited or interested or just being cute. I finally caught it on camera!

-He is officially crawling! He is quick and gets into everything! He does the hands and knees crawling but what he prefers most recently is one or two moves forward on his hands and knees with a little hop forward in between. It is so cute. It's like he has a little hitch in his giddy-up.

Daddy and Charlie putting together a new, super strength baby gate to keep our new crawler from taking a header down the stairs.

My brother, Steve, came to our sacrament meeting to watch Charlie while John and I were singing in the choir Christmas program. He shall now be known as the Baby Whisperer.

Charlie helping us do some shopping (his job was holding/chewing on my wallet)

Making some phone calls

-Can push himself up from crawling to sitting.

-He has begun to pull himself to standing. His preferred tool is the bathtub- it's just the right height for him to grab onto. He crawls over, reaches both hands up, pulls himself onto his knees then keeps pulling until his knees slide over then stands up. It's hilarious and very cute.



-Loves to dance (kicking his legs and bouncing his torso and head) when he hears music or when John starts drumming with him. He loves music of any kind, in the car, at the piano, on his toys, and at church... he likes to "sing" along.

-Loves to play the drums whether it's the RockBand set, John's drum kit in the studio or his little toy bongos, he's all about it!



-He loves balls (especially the big green yoga ball at Grandma and Grandpa T's). He is working on throwing the ball, too. Right now he throws his arm then drops the ball. Pretty good for 9 months, I'd say!

Playing ball with Grandma Bev

-He says "Da" for Daddy and "Hi". I think he says "Ba" for ball, but it's too early for a conclusive decision on that one. When he wants to nurse or he's sad he cries out for me by saying, "Ma" or "Mmmm" which is heartbreakingly adorable every time.

-He eats Cheerios (Grandma Sue got me to realize that he could do it one day) and Gerber puffs like a champ. He still loves baby food, his favorites being sweet potatoes and carrots. He likes noodles, too, and it pretty up for trying almost anything off our plates.

-Finally has a TOOTH! He has been working on it for a few weeks now and it finally has broken through. It's the bottom left middle one and the one right next to it is thinking about coming in as well. EDIT: Since I started writing this post a couple of days ago, the second bottom tooth has broken through and there's a bulge on his upper gum as well. Oh, mamacita!

-Drinks water out of a cup while holding it by himself. If we put just about a half an inch in the cup he doesn't spill or choke on it. It's pretty darling and impressive. He usually uses a plastic cup but when I help him use a glass, you can hear his little tooth clinking against the side of the glass.

-He loves to play Peekaboo and has started putting the blanket over his head on his own to play with us. He also gets so excited when other people are nearby when I'm holding him- he thinks everyone is playing "I'm gonna get you!"

-Loves to play in the pots and pans




-Likes to go sit in the car with Daddy while it is warming up.




He's a joy to be around, even when he's in pain from teething or bonking his head on his crawling adventures. We love this little guy!