The Christmas Letter

Greetings from the Nielsens!
Though we try to fool ourselves into thinking our Christmas might look something like the front of this card, we have resigned to the fact that we still call the Las Vegas desert home.

Jon has taken advantage of the desert sun and become a “runner”. People who go out for a nice, leisurely jog every now and again don’t get the true runner label. It takes a certain level of commitment (and insanity if you ask me) to deserve the full title. If you are willing to run even when the sun is a scorching 115 degrees, if your Garmin Satellite watch has surpassed all other inventions as the greatest thing ever made, and if you are willing to run your own marathon of personal design while your wife provides the occasional snack and water stop with the baby in the back of a car then you, like Jon, can officially be called a runner.

Kacey, on the other hand, uses the hot, hot sun as a great excuse to stay indoors. Why melt when the A/C works just fine in here?! Unfortunately the amount of indoor time doesn’t really seem to translate into more housework completion. But she is always sure that all books get read, all TV shows get watched, all shopping gets done, and Scarlet is still alive and healthy when the day is done. Success? I like to think so.

Scarlet enjoys waking up to the early sun, no matter what time it likes to grace us with its presence. Scarlet is an ever-growing bundle of chunkiness and joy. At 9 months she is already tipping the scales at 25 lbs, but that hasn’t slowed her down. Though she has now mastered crawling and assisted walking, her most impressive feat has got to be her palate. There is nothing this child won’t eat. From a big bite of spicy curry to a fresh squeeze of lemon juice, she chows down and asks for more. Every mother’s dream…

Hope everyone is having a wonderful Christmas season and here is wishing you the best for 2008!

Love,
The Nielsens

So you didn't miss much, but here was the letter I sent out this year. Hope everyone had a merry Christmas, I can't wait to read all about them!

The Stockings were hung by... New Years

I am a stay-at-home mom with one baby who is becoming so darn self-sufficient that I hardly have to do anything for her anymore but wipe her cute tush every now and then and yet, for the past few days I haven't had a second of free time. Christmas rush has hit me full force. I FINALLY got Christmas decorations up. There are lights around the window, the nativity in the corner, and a half-lit Christmas topping it all off. I totally ran out of lights a few hours ago and did not have the energy to go shopping for more.

I also got most of my Christmas cards in the mail. Unfortunately almost everyone who reads my blog under the age of 40 will not be receiving one. I thought I had plenty of cards and pictures this year. Turns out, Jon knows a lot of people and thinks they all care about our life this year. Whoda thunk? So I completely ran out. But most of your parents will be receiving them to check them out. I'm also gonna post the letter and pic in a week so you can all have something special and magical to look forward to.

So I took Scarlet to the Dr. today for a little well check/vaccination time. No shockers, my child is still enormous. Tipping the scales at 25lb.8oz. and towering a whole 32" above the crowd. Dr. Laura (yeah, that is my doctor's name) says she is the size of an average 18 month old. So my theory held true. Fertilizer works on babies as well.

I am proud of my little butterball giant though. She got a shot today and they had to stick her for an anemia test. I was just waiting for the usual red faced screaming-so-loud-she-doesn't-make-any-noise-for-a-few-seconds cry. But nope, she just watched the lady calmly, not a single sign of protest. How awesome is that?! I was so darn proud of her! Momma ain't raisin' no wimp. Y'all. I'm going to stop typing. My phrasing is getting weirder and weirder.

YYYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!

MY DAD GOT HIS LICENSE BACK! It is only for the extent of the trial and there are some restrictions but he gets to work again! It is the best news ever. The exciting part is the medical board gave it back to him. We were basically waiting this whole time for the board to refuse to give it to him and then appeal. If they think he should be practicing still then that is a really good sign for the trial to come!

Here's the bizarre part. My parents were supposed to be on the Book of Mormon trip with everyone else. But, because my parents were unsure of their financial situation they didn't go. During the time they should have been in South America my mom got sick and had to have surgery. Can you imagine if that would have happened while they were on the tour?! It would have been AWFUL! And now, a week after she gets out of the hospital he gets his license back. I have said it before and I'll say it again, God knows what He is doing.

Ward Christmas Party

My ward is either seriously on top of things or were desperate to get it over with. We had our ward Christmas party on December 1st. Everyone kept asking all night why we were having our ward party in November... almost.

We have a lot of fun couples our age in the ward so we chatted all night. Our friends Dale and Mindy who just moved into town came with us. Dale has been trying to get to our activities for months now after finding out that former BYU Basketball player Mike Rose is in our ward. When he found out, his next comment was, "wow do you have any other celebrities in your ward?" I got a kick outta that. So he got to meet Mike last night, that was pretty exciting for him. And I could tell Mike liked having a fan.

The primary kids put on a nativity, nothing compared to the Earl production every year but decent in its own right. Then, we ate dinner and basically called it an evening. Of course right before we headed out the door, we had a 'special guest' stop by. Since Angie has frightened me away from mall Santas for the rest of my life I just couldn't resist the opportunity.

At first she was very curious about Santa, she gave him the ol' stranger stare she has perfected. But with a candy cane in hand she wasn't about to complain. Oddly enough, I found myself a little disappointed. I realized all I wanted was big crocodile tears pouring down her face as she reaches out for me like every other child has on Santa's lap. How mean am I?

But then we decided we wanted a picture with Jane (Dale and Mindy's baby) and Scarlet together on Santa's lap.


And, I finally got my picture. Poor kid. But check out those chunky legs coming out of those boots! They don't fit her feet very well but I had to buy them a size up so they would fit around those calves.

Update

For those of you that have already heard, or for those of you who haven't, I thought I'd write a little update on my mom so you know what's going on. She has been sick for about a week and basically all her intestines decided not to work anymore. Yesterday she went in for surgery and they found a "kink" in her small intestine. They fixed it, but it still takes several days for her intestines to decide to work again. So she is in the hospital still but on the mend.

I just talked to her a while ago and I'm excited I'm going to get the chance to head down to Moses Lake and help her out for awhile. I can think of very few times in my life I've actually ben able to help my mom, it's usually the other way around so I'm grateful for the opportunity. Plus who can complain about a trip home :) I know she will be just fine, but it's just sad she has to go through this. She made the comment to me, "I would rather have 7 babies again than go through this." Thanks for all the concern and well wishes! I will keep you posted.

No more pie for breakfast

We are finally back home from a week in Gridley, California with Jon's family. It was such a great week, one of those weeks that makes you a little sad to be home.

Jon has one brother and three sisters and all of them made it home this year. There are now 6 grandchildren with one on the way. Five girls and one boy. Luckily for Hawkins (the one boy) the one on the way is a boy so he'll have a little company.

Scarlet absolutely LOVED being around kids all day long. She just got a kick out of it. The closest cousin to her is Skylar who is almost 2 years old. Scarlet would just follow her around all day. Unfortunately Scarlet enjoyed this game much more than Skyler did, "Go-let, that's mine!" is what I heard all day long. I totally understand now why people move back to their families after they have kids. It is oh so much fun.

We had amazing food all week. After thanksgiving I think I had pie for every meal. I seem to be going through withdrawals today after finally putting something halfway decent in my system.

The Nielsens are outdoors people so whenever I'm up there we usually spend a few days doing anything from hiking to volleyball, whatever we are in the mood for. This week was tennis week. I'm sure you all will be shocked to hear, I am not an athlete. I'm quite embarrassingly terrible most of the time. The worst is being my size and going for a fun, casual game of basketball where everyone assumes 'hey, that girl has got to be good.' That is most definitely not the case. The only sport I can even come close to holding my own is volleyball. But I've finally decided I need to add another to my repertoire. I chose tennis. I'm really not any good, but I'm definitely improving. And I really enjoy it! It's kinda nice to have a sport that you don't really need to collect a lot of people to do.

Overall, Thanksgiving was a fabulous time. Now it's time to pull out the Christmas decor! I am so mad at myself, we didn't take a single picture all week. But here are some pictures from our first Nielsen family Christmas photo shoot. I won't post the one that will become our Christmas card but here are some we took of Scarlet.

I got nada...

I have absolutely nothing to blog about so I'll stick with the crowd and reveal the 5 things you didn't know about me. Hope I can think of five...

1. I always save the best bite for last. For sandwiches, that means working my way to the middle, crust first. Whatever I consider the best bite of whatever I'm eating, that is the last bite I enjoy. I love ending my meals on a very positive note. The big problem comes when someone comes and takes my last bite. Little do they know the preparation that went into creating that final food morsel. Entire meals have been ruined by a poorly timed bite steal...

2. I am a pure slob at heart. Were it not for my love of my husband and child and my concern for my social reputation, my house would probably be uninhabitable. I have learned over the years that I just have to get over it and learn how to clean. But it really has been VERY hard for me. I'm not even one of those people who finally cleans everything then thinks, 'wow that is much better.' To be honest, I almost always preferred a little bit of clutter.

3. Excluding some blond highlights at the age of 13 (from angie) and a few months of bright red hair in college, I have always kept my natural hair color. The weird part is, I get asked about once a month if I've dyed my hair, even by Jon sometimes. Especially after I had Scarlet. I would tell people I hadn't dyed it and they would look at me like I was lying to them. I like to think I'm like a magic-free Tonks (wow what a dorky harry potter reference...)

4. I HATE hand jewelry. I'm really not big on bracelets but its rings that drive me the most crazy. I tried to make myself a ring wearer several times over the years but it has never stuck. I just don't like them! So when my husband gave me my simple and elegant gold band wedding ring that he made, I realized all over again he really was the one for me. It's the only ring I have ever been able to wear for more than a week.

5. I am a closet speed demon. My mom reads my blog so I shouldn't even include this one because I can just see the lectures building in her mind. But hey, I'm an adult right? I had my fair share of speeding tickets in high school but it wasn't until college that I really hit my full potential. My little Malibu could get up to 108 and I actually made the drive from Provo to Boise without ever letting the needle go below 95. Luckily, I have realized the true stupidity of this little thrill of mine and I have turned in my... ok there wasn't really anything to turn in. But I have slowed down significantly.

We're headed to Gridley for the entire Thanksgiving week. So everyone have a happy Thanksgiving!

What goes in must come out

My lovely little child is quickly moving up the baby food chain and is now a regular finger food eater. As demonstrated in the earlier video, she is quite proficient with corn. She is also a big fan of carrots, beets, soy beans, and basically everything else I put in front of her. And though I am super proud of her new found hand to mouth coordination and those few minutes I can do the dishes while she snacks, I am sure getting sick of seeing it all come out whole on the other end.

Seriously, can she really be getting anything out of the corn if I am graced by the presence of every kernel later that evening? And, though this mental picture may be too disturbing for those weak stomachs out there (it almost did Jon in), a little warning for moms. Beets + baby digestive system = worm poo diaper. Grossest looking thing I have ever seen. I do usually like to illustrate my points with pictures, but I'll save you the horror. (No I didn't take a picture of it. I'm a pretty crazy first mom, but I'm not that crazy.)

On the plus side, it is nice to have a child that is truly willing to eat anything. Jon and I went over to Sam and Kyle's the other day and brought over some Thai food. It's a place we have gone before but for some reason this time their curry was really spicy. Scarlet is always wanting to sample whatever we are eating so Jon gave her a small bite of the curry (against my advising). Sure enough, she wanted more so he gave her a large bite of curry. Instantly her entire face turned bright red and her eyes got really big. I was just waiting for her to explode into tears. Instead, she opened her mouth for more. Crazy kid...

Tonight, You Can Call Me Scar

Halloween is such a blast. And it is oh so much more fun when you have kids! Of course in years to come when they can do more than sit there and look adorable, I'm sure the joy will just increase. But we really had a great time last night.

Per Jon's decisions, Scarlet spent her first Halloween as a goth. Of course it would have been more original HAD MYCA NOT BEATEN US TO IT! Oh well, unoriginal but still pretty funny. Our ward was split between thinking it was hilarious... and thinking we were evil.

Jon and I weren't going to dress up at all but about 20 minutes before we had to go as we are getting Scarlet ready, Jon decides we're gonna dress up with her. So our get ups are pretty pathetic, but I got a kick outta them. Jon is actually wearing my jeans pegged at the bottom. I think they were a little big on him too... there's something that makes you wanna run to the gym.

We went to our ward trunk or treat which was held across the street from our apartment. By far the biggest Trunk or Treat I have ever been to! We lined the entire street on both sides! Of course only 1 of every 2 kids was from our ward. We had a big neighborhood turnout.

Scarlet had such a great time. She was fascinated by all the kids in costume and, as is not so shocking, she is a candy lover just like her mom. Somehow during the night she got a hold of a snickers bar, wrapper still on of course. She chewed on the outside of that for quite a while. Then somebody gave her a tootsie pop, again wrapper on. She was sucking on it, perfectly content for the longest time until I realized what had happened. She sucked the top part of the wrapper completely off and was down to the good stuff underneath. What a happy kid she was.

And when we finally got home, we immediately threw Scarlet in the bath.

Her head is still a little pink this morning...

Holidays... So Nice

Isn't this just the greatest time of year? Maybe it is too stressful for some people but I just get so happy around holiday time. Maybe because we don't get to be around our family very much and within a few months we usually get to see everyone. And, though I am very aware she won't be able to appreciate any of it, it is always so fun to think about my little ball of chubs who gets to experience it all for the first time.

Starting with Halloween of course. Not that we have big plans this year. The ward trunk or treat is the big occasion of the evening. By the way, I am totally excited to see everyone's kids all dekked out in their costumes so after Wednesday, start blogging. I'm going to keep Scarlet's first costume a surprise until I post the pictures. Though I will warn you, Jon picked the costume.

For Thanksgiving this year we are going to Jon's home town, Gridley California. I LOVE going to Gridley for Thanksgiving. There will always be a part of me that wants to be home... but admittedly that part gets smaller and smaller every year (sorry mom!) Not only is Gridley filled with people I love, but it has some dang good food. I'm not just talking the Thanksgiving meal, I'm mostly talking about my mother-in-laws garden. Imagine Gail Earl's garden/lawn with the added benefit of being in Northern California where everything grows. I absolutely love it. We leave every year loaded down with boxes of tangerine and mandarin oranges, kiwis (Gridley is the kiwi capital of the USA, fun fact for the day), pomegranates, walnuts, and anything else that happened to produce well that year.

And Christmas, is there anything more I have to say? You just can't help feeling good, everyone just seems a little bit nicer. Jon and I took our Christmas pictures yesterday. I think we got a few good ones. I personally prefer the pictures with just Scarlet but Jon is insisting on a whole family shot. Our first year of Christmas cards... how special! (small tear)

All else is well in the Nielsen house. I actually was just hired as a dance teacher for a new studio that is starting in my area. I'm really excited about that. It should be starting up in February. It's part musical theater, part dance. The company has already been going in the east side of the city and now they are moving to my side of the valley so hopefully they will be as successful over here as they have been over there.

And because I always love a good picture, here is Scarlet from last Sunday. She was just so pink and girly looking I just loved it! Nobody was going to call my baby a cute little boy that day!

Somebody told me that's where dreams will be...

I am listening to Sara Bareilles' CD right now and it is just perfect for my mood right now. Sweeping the kitchen floor, finishing dinner, baby is sleeping, and life is just smooth going. I always get her song, "Love Song" stuck in my head. I actually only borrowed her CD from the library. I'm wwaayy too cheap to actually buy CDs.

Speaking of music, we had some friends in town this weekend so we make a little stop at "Bite of Las Vegas." It's basically a big vendor/fair setup at a park but they also have a big stage set up and they get some good acts to come. We caught Vanessa Carlton's performance and it was soo good! Just her and the piano onstage for 45 minutes. I'm such a sucker for the piano and people who write their own music.

The weather in Vegas is just about perfect right now. Still warm during the day with nice cool evenings. It feels so great to just leave your windows open and let the breeze flow through the apartment. That is until our neighbor's apartment got broken into. Someone went through that delightful open window and, luckily for them, ran into the family dog. They didn't take anything in their mad dash out the door, but it doesn't make my dog-free, window open condo feel very protective. Bad people ruin all the good things in life.

Speaking of the good things in life, my kid is cracking me up more and more every day. She is getting so independent, she doesn't even feel like a baby anymore. I just love her.

Lotta Scarlet

My sweet sister Kendall emailed me the other day and asked me if Scarlet had any new tricks. Instead of describing them, I thought I would post this little video for her. Anyone not immediately related to her (i.e. aunts, grandparents) will probably not find this video super interesting. OH and please excuse my super annoying voice throughout.

B Y U!!!!

Oh Rise and Shout the Nielsens are out...

It's so great when the Cougars play in your backyard. Saves us a lot of unnecessary efforts to show our true Blue spirit. Jon met up with an old mission friend at the BYU vs. UNLV game last night. We took Scarlet along, after we found out that EVERY available babysitter in our ward was already reserved.

I'm actually so glad we took her along. She loved it! The minute we walked in the door she was just in awe over the lights and players. We were there for over 4 hours. She didn't sleep a wink but was the happiest most excited little kid you have ever seen. It was too funny.

The really pathetic part was we had absolutely no insignia to show our support of the cougars. I'm not sure how Jon and I both made it out of BYU without any apparel but we managed. Scarlet who at one point owned a little BYU onesie has long since grown out of it. We were pretty pathetic fans. But I guess they didn't need us cause they won!

My mom is in New York this weekend for a costume show. I'm pretty jealous. I loved my time in New York. I'm not sure I could do it again, I don't imagine NY with a baby would be as fun, but I just have the greatest memories from that semester. My long subway ride to work, all the crazy stuff they made me do at Letterman. I was an intern in the worst sense of the word most days. I would fetch dry cleaning, made at least 2 coffee runs a day, always had to run to the grocery store for his personal chef, I even had to return some clothes for Letterman one day.

But the fact that I could just take a stroll in central park, or wait in line for student tickets and see any broadway play for under $30, or just be standing in Times Square. So so fabulous.

Home again, home again

Scarlet and I trekked back to Colorado with Jon this week. And thanks to his extended effort and skill, Coloradians are now able to buy discounted clothing from employees with much greater ease. I'm a Ross regular. I have a hard time paying more than $10 for a shirt thanks to them. My second most frequented shopping place is Nordstrom Rack. It is perfect for an oddly shaped girl like myself. Occassionally they will have a random super long pair of jeans that make my life just a little bit happier. I actually found a really cute dress there just a few days ago, originally $150 and I got it for $10. It's kinda fancy too. Now I just need an occasion to wear it!

Speaking of good deals, Courtney just went to Homecoming recently and wore a dress my mom found for under $40. Added a few sparkles here and a little material there, and she looked goregous!





Colorado was great. We didn't do much more than hang out in the hotel room, but it was a great hotel. The nicest people worked there. Scarlet slept in the closet while we were there and she has never slept so well in her life! She didn't take a nap that was under 2 hours. I was pretty sad to leave that closet...

I got a little antsy one of the days we were there and needed to get out of the hotel. I didn't have a car so I could only go to places within walking range. And, as luck would have it there was a nail place across the street. I RARELY have my nails done. In fact, I have never had nails put on and I think I have gotten like 1 manicure in my life. But I love love love pedicures. I think they are so relaxing. I have terrible feet from the fact that I wear flip flops every day of my life. It is so nice to get them all cleaned up and looking so cute. I very much enjoy looking down at my feet and seeing cute toes.

Nail places are also one of the only places where I am a really good tipper. I am an overall good tipper, but I go all out at nail places. Mostly because I can't believe someone has been willing to spend so much time with my feet.

Oh and...

My mom also complained that my mohawk pictures weren't 'mohawky' enough, so I've included some pictures that show a more vivid mohawk. I'm just here to please, any other blog improvement suggestions from anyone else while I'm at it?!

Love you mom :)

Nevermind

My mom told me she didn't like my new blog layout... and ever since she said something it started bothering me too. So back to the old ways we go. Oh well.

Uh, how cute is my blog?

I found this new blog template layout page and I'm so stoked about it. I always used to look at Jared and Lindsay's and be so jealous of how original and cool their blog was. Of course I didn't make it myself so I'm not in Bates Blog territory yet... but still I am a much bigger fan. Is it sad that my day just got a whole lot better because of a blog addition?

I had a diet breakdown this evening. I have been on a pretty serious 'dont eat anything good' diet for the past month and I don't have a scale so I don't really even know if it worked. Many of you might not understand this but when you're 6'1" it takes a major of weight gain and loss to actually look any different. You know some people you can tell when they lost like 5 pounds? It takes like 10-12 before I look different at all. I'm not even sure why I bother.

But anyways, as I was saying, major breakdown. Everything in the fridge looked so gross, I didn't have anyone but Scarlet to make dinner before and she loved her mixed vegetable puree. And she was already ready for bed so I didn't want to run out and get anything... so I ordered Chinese takeout. a LOT of Chinese takeout. And let me tell you it was gggooo-oooddd. Mmm.

My food getting cold... gotta run.

I hate coming up with titles

All is as usual in the Nielsen home. Jon just left again, hopefully not for the whole week this time. I'm really not sure how he can be away from me so often. I must not be as hot as I think I am... Nah that can't be it.

Scarlet is getting rounder by the second. Someone actually asked me in church where my child's beer belly came from... and he wasn't far from the mark. She has always been a chunker, but I swear her belly has doubled in size in like the last 2 weeks! Maybe that means she has a big growth spurt coming... or maybe she just likes food.

Her first tooth broke through the other day, pretty painlessly too. I didn't even notice any behavior change, I just reached in her mouth the other day and suddenly felt the start of a tooth!

Of course reaching inside my baby's mouth has become a very frequent thing. She puts everything in her mouth. The other day I picked her up from playing on the ground and put her in her chair for lunch. She is a really good eater (I guess the belly shouldn't shock me that much) but this time she kept spitting the food back at me. Finally, I thought I saw something in her mouth so I fished around a little and found a 4 inch piece of ribbon she must have dug up somewhere just sitting in there. Lucky for me she doesn't seem interested in swallowing things like that yet, just letting them soak in her mouth for awhile.

Nothing new with my dad. The news is being really harsh, not only harsh but wrong. It's really really frustrating. But we just keep praying and hope for the best!

Oh and I keep meaning to post these pictures and I keep forgetting. Jon's hair had gotten really long and instead of cutting it, he cut himself a mohawk for a day or two. And since Scarlet's hair is pretty much growing into a mohawk, we took some matching hair daddy daughter pictures! Trashy, I know but I still think they're cute.

Poor Dr. Dave

I don't really want to talk too much about it, but as you can imagine life is pretty rough at our house right now. It's hard for me to believe something like this could happen to one of the most generous men I have ever met. I don't want to tell you what to fast for, but just a reminder that this Sunday is fast Sunday and if you feel so inclined, please do.

Even though it has been pretty rough, I do know deep down that it will all be ok. I don't really know what ok means, but I do know better times are on their way. Hopefully soon! I love you all. Especially you dad.

Cause I'm Leavin'

Jon is back in Colorado this week. That really sucks. But moving on...

Right now there are three couches and a long chair shoved in my small apartment living room. I got the new ones as planned, but somehow old piece of crap didn't find its way out yet. It's quite the sight. Of course I think if my family came and visited me right now I would have a comfy place for every single one of them to sleep. No room for anything else of course.

I got to do baptisms for the dead for the first time as a leader on Saturday. I really had a great time. I actually really enjoyed giving them their towels, showing the new girls where to go. But we ended up being gone for 5 hours, making it the longest Jon has ever spent with his daughter alone.

When I left her she was down for her first nap of the day and she got up about an hour after I left. For the next four hours, she did not sleep a wink. Jon claimed he tried to put her down at one point but she wasn't having it. By the time I got home she was so giddy and riled up, I swear he must have slipped a little caffiene or something in her bottle. She would not take another nap. So she went to bed at 8:30 last night after having been awake for 9 hours straight. Crazy child.

My favorite part was when Jon showed me the pictures he had taken. Now when Jon is in charge of getting her dressed she usually ends up naked or in a onesie. Never EVER an outfit. Even when I set one out for her. So then Jon tells me he took Scarlet to the park and took pictures of her and my first thought was 'my goodness I hope she had clothes on." Look at this cute outfit he put her in!

I was so proud!

This week I'm in charge of our big Standards Night activity for all the young women... and I probably made it a little more complicated than I needed to. It's gonna be pretty crazy if I actually pull this thing off. More details later.

I blew it!

Scarlet is already fitting into 6-12, 9 month and similarly labeled clothing. I can still squeeze her into a few 3-6 or 6 month outfits, but I'm pushing it most of the time. So yesterday I was going through some of her bigger clothes to see what sizes I have and I found like 5 six month outfits I had never pulled out! And some of them were so dang cute... I totally blew it. So I have squeezed her into one a day since. And then they've gone immediately into the "too fat for that" bin. At least baby girl #2 will have a few outfits that haven't been totally trashed.

My kid is watching the Baby Einstein video that is supposed to teach her sign language right now. She is enthralled. I have yet to show her any baby movies before, she is lovin it! There is little better in life than a baby who likes tv. Of course with the sign language ones I'm pretty sure they aren't so effective unless I am watching and learning the signs too... Oh well

Oh, and I'm totally buying new couches this weekend! I can't even tell you how excited I am. We have one small couch, and it's the only place to sit in the whole room. Jon bought it at DI before we were married, and it was a piece of crap then. Now it's a rotting, awful piece of crap. But who wants to buy new furniture for an apartment you don't really want that kind of commitment to? There's that little fear in my brain if I actually start buying stuff for it and convincing it that I really do like it enough to make it cute, the apartment might never let us go. So I've kept my distance.

So I found couches for like $300 and they are sweet. There are two couches and one of those long bench chair kinda things, I don't know what they are called but I really like them. They are a little worn which is perfect because then I won't feel the need to schlep them when we move to wherever home #2 will be. And when people come over, they can actually sit down. Maybe people will want to come over now...

Silent Kacey Strikes Back...

Scarlet and I have been living the easy life for the past two weeks again. Jon's company flew us to Colorado because Jon had been stuck there for so long. So I spent 2 lazy weeks in a hotel room eating out for every meal, enjoying the sights (by the way Colorado is so beautiful!), and doing a whole lot of nothing. It was oh so very nice.

The best part about it was this hotel cafe we discovered. Now I'm one of those people who is super annoyed when a hotel doesn't provide free breakfast. I need my breakfast, but I don't really need a whole production. A simple bowl of cereal, maybe an english muffin on the side, I'm one happy camper. But our hotel did not have this little luxury. Instead they had a Swedish cafe built into it. And lets just say I have found two new love of my life's - pierogis and peach waffle boats.

So Pierogis look a whole lot like potstickers but they have strawberries or this really good vanilla cream cheese stuffed inside. They fill the plate with them and top them with whipped cream and cinnamon. Delicious took on a whole new meaning. Of course they were just one step down from the waffles shaped like long ovals filled with the vanilla cream cheese filling stuff and topped with peach jam and whipped cream. Mmmmmm.

We actually had some crazy eating experiences while we were there. We were in Boulder for most of the time which is an absolutely beautiful city... but a little nuts too. For example, every other person had dreads. Not kidding, we actually saw a guy who was totally balding, you know just had the hair rim behind the ears left, who had dreads. Super disturbing... Not only that, EVERYTHING in Boulder is organic, tofu, or soy. And as a meat eating pesticide, growth horomone eatin fool, I'm not sure I totally fit it. Also almost every baby I saw was wearing cloth diapers. Jon suggested we give them a try. I agreed whole-heartedly, assuming of course that he would take over all diaper laundering duties. We got back to the pampers pretty quick.

After that, we spent a weekend in California while Jon participated in a corporate challenge. So he got to play volleyball and run relay races for a whole work day on the beach and we still got paid for it. We also got to go to the beach for the first time this summer. Scarlet really enjoyed herself. Of course I"m not sure how much sand she actually swallowed, but hey, sand isn't that bad for you right?

We got back late Saturday night and crashed. I realized the next morning that my cell phone was dead and I needed to charge it, only to discover my cell phone was no where to be found. We don't have a house phone so when Jon jetted back to Colorado I was left completely cut off from the outside world... except for internet of course. I turned the apartment upside down looking for it, driving to two different t-mobiles trying to figure out what I should do, only to finally find it an hour ago under the refridgerator. How did my cell phone get under my fridge you ask? We may never know...

Two Whole Years

It's true. Jon and I still "believe in a thing called love" (our song) two years later. "That's like a whole mission without trading companions once!" Labor Day was our anniversary. I didn't even realize it at the time but we totally picked the perfect weekend to be married. I've declared Labor Day to be my anniversary (regardless of whether or not it lands on the 3rd) every year. I love when Jon doesn't have to work on weekdays and that way every year we get an extra day of weekend time. We had such a great time. I almost feel like I shouldn't share it though because it might sound really boring to anyone else. Oh well, it's my blog.

Scarlet let us sleep in until 9:30 that morning. That was the greatest. What better gift can your 6 month old give you? We spent a little time organizing the apartment and put Scarlet down for a nap that turned out to be 3 hours long. That NEVER happens. We got to just be the two of us all afternoon, which mostly involved chatting about life and lazying around the apartment. When she woke up we drove out to the Red Rock Loop. It is so goregous! Jon and I had both not been there so we really enjoyed playing tourist in our own city.

Her smile in this picture cracks me up!

Then we had a great Thai meal at a new restaurant we hadn't tried before and Scarlet was a doll through the whole thing. The only potentially moment ruining thing there was this nutty couple that came in. The lady was seriously off her rocker. She kept talking to the people who worked there really loud and slow, saying things like, "You are in my country, you should speak my language." and "I was a vodka martini, you know what a martini is right?" Their english was fine by the way. She also insisted they have a male waiter because women are always slow and they just don't understand her. When she first walked in the door, she came right up to me and asked me how old Scarlet was. Then she says, "make her stay that age forever because when they are sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen... (she counted slowly all the way to 25) they are TERRIBLE!" she shouts at me. Quite the adventure.

But overall great anniversary. I've got a good little family.