A Girl's Night/Anniversary

Last night I was invited to attend the play Pirates of Penzance with some friends from my ward.  It was SO much fun!  I didn't know this until later in the evening, but it was my friend Betsy's wedding anniversary, but her hubby is serving in the military so she got friends together to celebrate it with the girls.

We first went to Costa Vida for dinner.  I had never been there but was surprised that it was pretty good.  After dinner, we walked over to the playhouse and met some more people for the show.  It was great!  It was so funny and I was amazed with the vocals.  It was awesome!  My friend Betsy and her hubby were in Pirates of Penzance together when they were first married so it was only fitting that we went to that particular show for her anniversary.  Betsy (when she was in the Pirates of Penzance years ago) ended up with the pirate king while her hubby was one of the police officers.  We had to take a photo to salute him the Pirates of Penzance way.

Happy Anniversary Betsy & Erik!

I'm Ready For My Close-Up!

Yesterday, I was getting Tali ready for the day she looked so cute I started to take pictures.  The funny thing is, she posed herself.  No joke.  Here are some of the photos I took of her.

 She has this thing with sticking out her tongue.

 This last photo of her laying her head down is my favorite!

I had gotten ready to go see a play with some friends and thought I looked pretty decent until Tali looked at my face, pointed to a where a previous blemish had been and reminded me that my skin was not flawless.  She kept pointing to my blemish saying "Ouchie!  Ouchie Mom!"  Gotta love it when your kids point out all of your flaws.  Despite that, I decided to try and take pictures of her and me together.

I love having such an honest little girl.

Goals: Part 2

Lately, I've felt this need to learn a new skill(s) along with losing my baby weight.  The skills that I've decided to try to learn are playing the piano (which means lots of practice) as well as learning to play the cello.  I had played when I was in sixth grade until I went to a Merry Miss activity for church and someone placed it at the top of their stairs (Yep.  You guessed it.) and down it came breaking the bridge along with the front body of the cello.  Ever since then I wanted to pick it up again.

Brian is so good to me!  On a whim I decided to check the local ads to see if I could find a cello for a reasonable price.  I actually found one for $350!  It came with everything!  For that price I got the cello, bow, rosin, a polish, a collapsible music stand and cello stand, an instruction manual along with some sheet music.  I was ecstatic!  The cello was even in perfect condition!

Isn't it pretty?!?

Brian and I took turns practicing with it.  Surprisingly, he started playing Merry Had A Little Lamb just by ear and he's never played before!  What a show-off!

I had heard from a friend of mine who is also in my stake that they know someone in their ward who teaches cello, so I will definitely look into that so I can start playing!  I'M SO EXCITED!

Smiles & Chillin'

Last week Jairus had smiled for the first time on August 23rd.  It was so exciting.  I tried getting him on camera, but he just wanted to make faces instead.

 He may not be smiling in these photos, but he's still a cutie!

Brian FINALLY didn't have to work 6 days this past week so the first thing he wanted to do was hang out with Tali while she played in her pool.  This photo makes her look like she's got attitude.

I'm not exactly sure what she is doing, but I'm pretty sure she's looking at a bird on the canopy of her pool.

At our house, when someone wants ice cream, we usually have to scream for it.

Tali as you can tell is really good at it.

"Who loves ice cream?!?"

 "Ahhhhh!"

Goals

Ever since I had little Jairus I've been dying to get back into an exercise routine to lose some, if not all of this baby weight and get back to my pre-baby weight which was about 115 lbs.  I had my six week check-up this week and was released by my doctor to do any exercises I wanted within reason.  I was so excited I just wanted to go running and start working on my abs.  The only bad thing is I no longer have a gym membership.  Yes I could workout at home which is why I decided to just buy a couple of workout DVD's.

I swear I have the best husband.  I had told him about these two workout videos that I wanted to buy and the next morning after he got off of work, he surprised me by going to the store and picking them up for me.  He later told me he felt really weird and embarrassed buying "chick" workout DVD's (he had to turn them over at the checkout so he wouldn't get weird looks).  What a good sport he is!  These are the two DVD's he bought.

I've only tried parts of the Banish Fat Boost Metabolism one so far but I absolutely LOVE it.  It does some kickboxing which I just LOVE!

I also found out a couple of days ago that my mom's old stake does these workout classes every Monday, Wednesday & Friday from 9am until about 10 or 10:30am.  I was able to go to my first class today and it was pretty good.  I feel like I actually did something.  I LOVE it!  There's just something about a nice workout that makes you feel fantastic!  I've got about 7 weeks to lose 10-15 lbs to reach my ideal weight.  My 10 year high school class reunion is coming up and I don't want to be that person that people look at and say "Oh my gosh!  She has ballooned out/let herself go."  I just have to keep saying to myself "I think I can!  I think I can!  I think I can! "  Wish me luck!

Baby Blessing

Last Sunday we blessed our handsome boy in church.  It was so good to see family and friends we hadn't seen in a while.  Brian did an awesome job blessing our son.  It just about brought me to tears.  I feel so blessed to be able to have the priesthood in our home.
 

After the blessing Brian's family and a few friends came over  to the house for a luncheon.  We were also able to snap a few photos.

Me and my little man.

Here is a picture of Brian with his dad, two brothers, and three if his nephews.

They are quite the silly bunch.

 Brian & Jairus with Uncle Matt, Uncle Mitch, and Papa Monson

Trying to get Tali to take pictures....

In her defense, she didn't have a nap and our church started at 1pm.
 

Brian and me with the little man of the day.  What a sweet boy!

Let's try this again.  I know this first picture is a little blurry, but I still thought it was cute.

This second family picture was probably the best one we were able to take that day.
 

Ha ha!  Gotta love that face of Tali's.  

All in all it was a great day with good company.

Girl's Day Out!

Last week since Brian's brother's family was in town, and it being Brian's mom's birthday, we decided to all go out for a little girly pampering.

It was Ma's first time ever getting a pedicure.  I think she really liked it.  I know I did!  Tali was so proud that she picked out her own color.  She just HAD to have her toes painted purple.

I thought they turned out pretty cute!  I tried to convince Ma to get decorations on her toes, but she just wanted them painted...maybe next time though?

After our relaxing pedicures, we all joined my sister-in-law Abbie (since she had to work) at The Olive Garden for lunch.  Our waitress was really nice but a little awkward.  She had this high pitched voice and kept calling us "beautiful," "honey," "sweetie," "darling" and other similar names.  We couldn't help but laugh.  It was so nice to get together with all the girls though.

Thanks ladies for putting up with me being such a shutterbug the whole time.

Camo Baby

I took these pictures of Jairus this morning.  I had to change his clothes because he spit up on them.  I found this cute little onesie and remembered he had a matching pacifier.  I couldn't resist.

Our cute little camo boy!

Tired little man

One Month Old

Our little "J-Man" turned one month on Monday.  I can't believe he's already a month old!  Here are a couple more photos I took of him.

In the month that he's been with us, he has grown so much.  He's starting to actually get some meat on his bones, he's already rolling over and is starting to hold his head up (even if it is only for a few seconds).  He LOVES being held and staying up late....like father, like son, hates dirty diapers (WHOO HOO!) and his pacifier.

We all just love and adore the little man!

Pergola Progress

The last couple of days, Brian has been doing various things around the house to get it ready for company for our son's baby blessing.  He started working on the pergola again and now it is almost done!   Whoo hoo!  OW! OW!  Check out that sexy man!.....Oh wait. On second thought, never mind!

My handyman showing off.  He built the pergola completely on his own.  My honey has got skills!

Look out below!  Don't worry (Ma).  He's just posing.  He's not really falling....all though if he was, at least he's wearing a helmet right?

And of course Tali wanted to be like her Daddy.  She stole Daddy's glasses (she's turning into quite the little klepto) and put them on.  That's okay though.  At least she looks cute.

Silly girl.

IT'S DONE!!!!
Here is a picture of the finished pergola.....well other than staining it anyway.

My husband is totally AMAZING!