The blog world grows

Just wanted to let everyone know my mom has started her own blog! So so exciting, I know. I have it linked on my site... the one that says mom and dad, yes quite the code. My predictions are that it will be a site you don't need to hit too often since my mom will find time to post things on there maybe a little more often than never. And if we hear a word around recital/dance nationals time I'll be shocked beyond belief. But I'm pretty sure it will be about quality not quantity. And since she basically insulted the entire blogging community in one fail swoop in her first post, you know there are good things to come :)

I am so much better at this than a 3 year old...

When you aren't around your family for the holidays for us at least it makes it a little harder to celebrate correctly with all the grandeur every holiday deserves. But since we've been married, Jon and I refuse to let Easter fall by the wayside just because we only have the two (or now three) of us. So we usually go find other stranded Easter'ers and have some good ole fashioned Easter fun.

It was a goregous day on Saturday so we threw a bbq/easter egg decorating party. It is always so nice to have a bunch of interesting adults to talk to while eating good food. And then we all turned our attention to the eggs. We only had one kid there above the age of one so he is the only kid who got to participate. And it is so much more fun to decorate eggs now that your old enough to be creative and crafty in your coloring choices, we had some pretty rockin final results.

Unfortunately Scarlet has had a pretty mean cold all week. I really thought she was feeling better but it hit her pretty hard again that night and she didn't really leave me all night. I could tell she really wasn't feeling well when one of our friends brought their dog over and she didn't even look up as it barked and ran by. And by the way, she loves dogs. Poor girl!

We still had a great Easter Sunday. Jon and I actually spoke in Sacrament meeting and I think they both went well. Then Jon took Scarlet home to get some sleep while I got to enjoy a baby-free Relief Society.

By the way, officially got my new calling in our ward. I am the new... wait for it... cub scout master.

If anyone still wondered whether God had a sense of humor, I would say this one proves it.

I quit

It had been awhile since we had made Scarlet sit through a photo shoot and her first birthday seemed like a good excuse to snap some more photos. Scarlet is usually a pretty easy kid to take pictures of. The camera makes her very happy so it's easy to get a smile. Of course I forgot that during her previous camera shoots she wasn't really mobile yet...

Here was the set up. We went with our friends Mindy & Dale (Jon took 6 month pictures of their daughter Jane) to this giant chess set on top of one of the buildings here in town. I had her in this adorable black and white dress and we were ready to go.



Pretty cute set up huh? Unfortunately it was the coldest day Vegas has had in the past month and Scarlet was not having it. This was the only decent shot we got ALL DAY!

The rest looked more like this







At least she looks like she is smiling in the last one... I'm pretty sure that is a yawn though. In most of the pictures she has either taken off one of her shoes, has thrown herself to the ground in a tantrum, is carrying some object or another to make her happy, or has tears/drool/boogers running down her face.

Such high hopes.

On the bright side, Jane actually did get some cute pictures that day. Mindy has posted some on her blog, just click on the Mindy & Dale link to check them out. Maybe we will try again with Scarlet on a warmer day after a very, very long nap.

You've had a birthday shout HOORAY!

Scarlet is now officially a one year old. Who knew the infamous 'one year old tantrums' start almost immediately?! I won't lie when I say her first birthday was pretty pathetic. Though their importance is very overrated, it's still the duty of every first parent to make a big deal of it because it's the first chance you get to celebrate one very life changing day.

I kept trying to remind Scarlet all day long that it was her birthday but it didn't elicit much reaction. But we went shopping that morning and bought her some presents (some new books and a set of magnetic blocks). I also let her wander around Toys R Us for a good half an hour and she got a kick out of that. She is at the perfect age to do that because all she really wants to do is push all the electronic buttons on all the toys. But she isn't old enough yet to realize that she could in theory take the toys home with her should her mom be generous enough. So she plays until she is bored and we walk out tear-free. These really are the good days.

Our friends Dale and Mindy Warren moved into our apartment that afternoon so we helped them move in a few boxes. Actually Jon helped them while I kept Scarlet from tearing too much of their stuff apart. Then afterwards we ate out with them at the Hash House - Twisted Farm Food. It's a seriously crazy restaurant with the largest serving sizes you have ever seen. The Carruths met us there as well and we were quite the one year old birthday party crowd. At least Jane (the Warren's 6 month old daughter) was there to bring down the median crowd age.

The cutest part about the evening is they brought out Scarlet a watermelon slice with a candle! It was dang good watermelon too...

It was really late when we got home so Scarlet got to enjoy her birthday cake the next day. I think she really liked it though.

Oh and I have to pay tribute to a HUGE victory last weekend. For those of you who haven't heard (or didn't care to know in the first place) the Moses Lake Drill Team went to Nationals in California and place FIRST in kick and hip hop and SECOND in military!!!!! For those not in the dance world, that is huge. They were against like 30 teams in each category and they just killed. The video is already online if you're interested. It's at http://www.varsity.com/vwired/08usa_spirit_dancedrill.asp. You can see their military under large military and the other two routines under exhibition. CONGRATS MOLAHIETTES!!!!