November 2014

Our November went by pretty fast.  But I've noticed that most of life does that, these days.  The big highlight was probably Thanksgiving.
This year we were with the Bailey side, and so we headed down to Manti Thanksgiving morning.

 That side of the family is so big that we had to have our Thanksgiving in a cultural hall.  It was so fun to see everyone and eat yummy Thanksgiving food!
We spent the weekend there, and on Saturday, we drove up the canyon to cut down Christmas trees.  Aria had a blast.

I guess I should also mention the other part of our November, and that's how sick everyone has been.  Aria had a couple viruses, so did Cord, and we pretty much kept Instacare in business.  :/

Other than that, life is the same as always... school, work, repeat.  Ha.

Aria's 1st Birthday, Disneyland, and Halloween

Well it's been awhile... I'll just recap a few things.

Aria turned 1!  For her birthday we took her to Leatherby's and got her ice cream, which she'd never had before.

She loved it :)

The next day we had her birthday party.  We had so many family and friends join us to celebrate, it was great!  I'm so glad everyone could make it!  And thanks to my mom, it was totally a Pinterest-worthy party, if I do say so myself :)

The next day we left for our big trip of the year!  To put it mildly, I've been on better trips in my life.  One day I'll look back on it as a memorable time, but for now.... ugh.  Ha ha.  The first night we just drove to St. George.  Aria was so excited.

The next day we took her to the St. George Children's Museum, which she actually liked a lot.

We went to Zion National Park after that, and just drove around to enjoy the scenery.  After that, we drove to Las Vegas, during which Aria started to run a fever.  She wasn't acting sick, so we decided to keep going, because we figured it was from getting her 12 month shots a couple days before.
The next day we went to the M&M Store, and then that night we had the RiSe Festival.  It should have been fun, but we stood in line for a bus for 2 hours to get to the site.  There was no one to take our tickets or tell us where to go, and all in all, it was one of the most unorganized things I've ever been to.  Once it got started though, it was so cool!  And Aria LOVED it.  She couldn't stop watching all the lanterns.

The next day we drove to Anaheim, and we went to Medieval Times that night for dinner.

The next day we went to Disneyland, and that's when things started to go from bad to worse.  Cord felt super sick to his stomach all day, and by that night was running a fever and felt like dying.

Then that night, when Aria had been screaming for a straight hour in the hotel room in the middle of the night, we decided it was time to take her to the ER.  Thank goodness for the map app, people.  How else do you find a hospital in California??  Anyways, at this point we decided if the ER couldn't tell us what was going on with Aria, we were going home that very hour.  Besides getting House as a doctor, it was such a good thing we took her in, because it turned out she had a double ear infection.  After that, we had to find a pharmacy in the middle of the night to go pick up some Motrin and her prescription.  We made it back to the hotel room at about 4:15 am...

We decided to go ahead and stay for the rest of our trip.  We went to California Adventure the next day, and that's when I got sick.  I felt horrible and couldn't eat anything, and couldn't really ride anything.  Those are the two worst things that can happen to you in Disneyland.

The fever hit me that night. :/.  We did a half day at Disneyland the next day, and then drove to St. George.  The day after that, we drove home.  Here's to hoping our next trip goes a little better....

Lastly, Halloween.  We dressed Aria up as a bunny and took her to a couple houses around our neighborhood, and then over to my parents' place.  Oh and we carved a wicked pumpkin.  Cord thought he was real funny with the Merida thing.

July-Our First Trip and Other Things

July was a crazy busy month for us.  It was filled with family, friends, fireworks, food... you know, the good stuff.

For the 4th of July, we were with Cord's side of the family this year, and they were doing a Manti trip.  This would be Aria's first "trip" away from home.  She had a blast, except for not sleeping nearly enough, so we had a grumpy little baby on our hands by the end.  Aria also got her first four-wheel ride, which she thought was awesome.  We set off some fireworks the night of the 4th, and those made her cry.  We went up to the Peterson Cabin for a day, which was fun.

For Pioneer Day, we were with my family, and we went to a Real soccer game.  Cord and I LOVE those things.  We didn't take Aria though... I had the feeling she wouldn't have loved it so much. 

Cord's family has been in town the past month, and since we live with the Baileys right now, there were lots of little cousins running around for Aria to play with (or mostly just watch). 

Cord has continued to stay busy with full-time summer school and work.  He loves his job, and it's looking like he's got another one lined up as soon as this one is done, which is a great thing for us. 

June Recap

Wow, I haven't taken like, any pictures this past month.  I suck.

Anyway, we celebrated Cord's first official Father's Day.  Both of us got to see our dads, so that was good.

Aria turned 8 months old.  I can't believe how quick time is going by!  Ha ha I say that every month. 
She is constantly yelling and laughing and jabbering and pointing and clapping but not waving.  She just refuses to wave.  She is such a little blessing to us.  She is such a good little sleeper and eater.  She likes EVERYTHING I feed her!  And I feed her some weird stuff.  Some of her favorites are papaya, rutabaga, parsnips, and broccoli.  She even likes avocado!  We are about to start her on a lot more finger foods, now that she's getting better at picking things up.
She still crawls around like crazy and pulls herself up on everything.  She stood by herself unassisted for a few seconds, but other than that she doesn't seem too interested in learning to walk anytime soon.  She'd rather just crawl. 
I just love her little personality.  She is such a happy, people-loving baby.  She loves to look at people and try and get their attention, but lately she prefers to be held by mom or dad.
I did swimming lessons with her twice a week all through June, and she LOVED it.  By the end of June, she was splashing and laughing at the water the whole time.

Cord is still super busy with summer school.  I am so proud of him for sticking with it.  Summer school is no fun.
He's also working on base, and he actually really likes his job. 

As for me, I've been keeping myself busy doing domestic things, taking little Aria on playdates, going out with friends, and teaching a rowdy primary class.  It's the good life.  Ha ha.

7 Months Old and Disneyland

My parents decided to take Garrett to Disneyland before he goes back on his mission, and invited us to come along.  Cord had work and school, and Justin had to do medical app stuff, so I left Aria home and it turned out to be my parents and us three kids.  It was super fun.  It was nice to get away for a couple days.

In other news, little Aria is 7 months old now.  She keeps getting more fun, and more funny.  She's mastered crawling now, and is all over the place.  Now she's trying to get down pulling herself up on things.  I'm going to have a little walker in no time.  She's also learned to clap.  It's super cute.  We love her!

Garrett is Cool!

I'm a little late, but Garrett's 20th birthday was April 23!  I can't believe he is 20!

This past week, I got to go to Disneyland with my family before Gar leaves back on the mish.  I am so glad I went and got to spend a few days with him before he goes back out.  He is super funny, and me, Sloan, and him had a lot of fun goofing around together. 

When Garrett got to meet baby Aria, I was pleasantly surprised how much he loved being an uncle to a little baby.  Every time I take Aria over to my parents' house, Garrett makes a beeline to say hi to her very first.  It's so cute!

Garrett has been working at Cafe Zupas for the past 6 or so months, and he excels at it.  It takes a special kind of person to be able to deal so well with the general public (I would know), and Garrett takes it in stride and is constantly winning top employee awards.  His job loves him! 

When he was out on his mission, I was so impressed with what a hard worker he was.  I could tell by the letters and emails he wrote that he was loving what he was doing, and putting his best into it. 

He is also a smarty smart smarty.   He did a couple semesters of college at BYU before he left on his mission, and he did great!  And if you ask me, college is hard.  Just sayin.

Happy late birthday, Garrett!