Why is my kid crawling?

Scarlet was having a rough morning today. She cried and fussed every time I set her down. Of course, being the cruel, heartless mother that I am, I made her follow me to the kitchen as she cried all the way. That's when I noticed she was limping.

The entire side of her left foot was covered with big red welts! I am pretty sure they are bug bites. I just feel so bad for her. I feel itchy just looking at her foot. She has been crawling all day to stay off her feet.

Yeah, I'm feeling a little guilty for all the 'stop crying' comments this morning. Poor girl!

Love Being A Girl

I love seeing the things Scarlet seems to know without me ever teaching it to her. Like the first time I set Capn Crunch on her high chair tray and she ate out all the crunch berries and left the yellow pieces. I especially love watching her girl instincts come out. She already loves putting on "makeup" and uses my blush brush on her cheeks just like I do. She loves it when someone says she looks pretty. She carts around bags on her shoulder like a purse. And now, we have added the doll.


I think she looks like a celebrity mom in a magazine in this picture, hiding her face and kid from the paparazzi. My mom bought her this doll and she has been wheeling it around in its stroller and giving it cuddles ever since. Most of the kids her age in our area are boys and I'm not really sure she has ever seen a kid play with a doll. And yet there she is!

Jon and I really enjoy our ward. We have made such fun friends. Jon played babysitter the other day for my friend's two boys and Scarlet during our Primary Activity. They are the cutest kids.



I am so sad we didn't get a picture of it but when we got home Blaze (the younger one, about 3 days younger than Scarlet) was in Scarlet's jean frilly shorts and neon green shirt that reads 'little lady.' I guess the kids had some sprinkler time so Jon threw him in the first clothing he could find to get him dry. Too too cute.

Just made me smile

Scarlet has been able to crawl backwards downstairs for a long time now. But lately she likes to scream at the top of the staircase for me to help her walk down facing forward. The other day my hands were full and I was sick of the screaming anyway so I told her to get downstairs. She just stared at me. So I said, "Scarlet, you turn around right now and come downstairs."

Scarlet stared at me, turned around in a circle until she was facing me again and then looked at me like 'how was that supposed to help me get down the stairs?' At least she listened to most of what I said...

Back Home

I absolutely love summer. Even though I'm not in school anymore it still feels like it's my free vacation time. I find myself going from place to place almost nonstop. It is occasionally exhausting, especially with the added toddler and growing belly but I have gotten to do such fun things.

My summer officially started with Jon's parents, Bert and Charla coming for a visit. We were excited to show them our new house, and even more excited when they immediately got to work and helped us knock off several projects from our list. Charla and I hit the yard. I seriously know nothing about yard work and now I have all these plants to keep up. Now my roses are trimmed, the ivy is cut back, and most of the old roofing tile is off of my pretty flowers.

Bert and Jon finished our amazing bedroom. I can't wait to get pictures (we have some paint that needs to be touched up so I'm waiting for the finished product). We just painted our downstairs as well and it just looks so good. I really married a talented guy.

After working for three days straight we drove up to the extended Nielsen family reunion at Brian Head. We had a good time. Good food, fun hikes and activities, beautiful weather (it felt so good to be cold again!). The last night we split off into families and had an iron chef/dinner impossible cook off. Each family got secret ingredients and some cash and we had to make a few dishes. We got chicken, pineapple, and apple juice and my sis-in-law and Jon turned it into an amazing chicken dish with a fruit salsa and beverage. So then we all got together and sampled all the different dishes. That was such a fun meal.

We got back in town and my family was already in Vegas for the Nationals dance competition. They did such a good job! Scarlet and I spent the week watching hundreds of dances. Well, Scarlet spent most of her time making up her own moves to the dances. I even found one of the judges watching and laughing at her instead of watching the dancers... oops! They stayed in town and played for a couple of days and then headed back to Washington.

And then on Monday, Courtney, Scarlet, and I headed up to Utah to join my mom and Kylie. Kylie was in the Young Ambassadors camp at BYU and Courtney had some dance classes she could take at some good studios up there. It was basically a week of eating well, catching up on some television, and shopping. What more could anyone ask for!

We stayed at Cali's house and I absolutely loved being around her kids. Grace and Scarlet had a lot of fun together. I love watching kids that age play together. But at some point through all of this I definitely ran out of laundry which is usually a sign it's time to go home and get something done.

Oh, and Jon was just called as Young Men's president. Busy Sundays for us!