Sporadic

That is my word when it comes to blogging. I'm known for either posting 7 days in a row or going 3 weeks with ZERO posts. Feast or Famine I guess. Speaking of the word sporadic, by sheer luck I caught a midnight showing of the movie Clueless on Oxygen a couple weeks ago. Talk about a movie that defined my childhood (pre-adolescence?). Watching it was seriously like stepping into a timezone. I immediately was flooded with all the memories of 5th grade, the four of us who referred to each other as Cher, Di, Ty, and Summer, and dressed in plaid skirts and knee highs. Pretty sure we even modeled our parties after that movie. (I know, great role models we emulated in our impressionable youth, right?) When the movie first started, I was like "oh my gosh, this is SO cheesy, I can't believe we all thought it was the coolest thing since sliced bread" Then 45 mins later... I was sucked back into the world of valley girls. It was past 1 in the morning and I was trying to hard to keep my eyes open because Cher was being held up in the gas station... but I failed. Sleep overtook me. By the way, did you know the movie was loosely based off of Jane Austen's Emma? I never did!

So back to real life... we have been busy busy but enjoying it! Better to be busy than bored I always say. I recently started managing our apartments which has actually been a lot of fun. I love real estate and managing things, so it's kind of a perfect gig for me! I have also been continually upgrading our aparment, painting, redecorating, swapping furniture... I kind of got the bug.

I have been having so much fun as Emmett is learning more and more about language and how the world works. He has been picking up sign language so fast since he's started watching the Baby Signing Time DVDs, and I feel like that has helped him really improve his verbal language. The signs he uses most are more, hat, shoes, dog, and wash.  But he will randomly do a lot more, and I'm learning he does ones sometimes that I don't even recognize at first! He pinched his finger in the door yesterday and used sign language to tell me it hurt. It was sad but so adorable!  It is hilarious to secretly watch him watching his DVD, and watch him mimic the sign he was just taught with a look of intense concentration on his face! He is starting to say more things i.e. (ball, cheese, bath are just a few that I can remember right now) and understands so much more of what I say. I gave him an Old McDonald book to look at while we were shopping through Costco the other day, and all the sudden I start hearing him singing the tune to "And a Moo Moo here, and a Moo Moo there" except all of the words were replaced with "Moo". It was so funny to me that he just busted it out by himself!

Jared is finishing up the last days of his internship, which officially marks the end of summer (so sad!!) I am going to have to look into an indoor pool or something, even though it wont be the same without the sun!

PS random question... Anyone know how to get rid of fruit flies? I don't even have any fruit in here for them! So annoying! If you have some tips let me know!

2 little ducks went out to play

Emmett and I recently inherited a jogger, which we LOVE. We jog anywhere and everywhere we go, and are constantly trying to think of new places we go with it. Yesterday we went down to the duck pond and fed the ducks.

                              These three turtles were hilarious just sitting there posing for the picture

 There was the cutest little family of baby ducks, and do you see how this one is chillin on the turtle's back?!

HAHAH this picture makes me laugh every time I look at it! If you know Emmett, you know that when he really picks up the speed in his run, he tenses his neck and holds one arm out behind him. LOL. This picture is testament of how badly he wanted to catch that duck!!

Emmett doing sign language to say he wants more MORE ducks! haha!

                      It was the perfect time of day, and the reflection of the trees on the pond was beautiful! We will definitely be returning here a lot on our morning runs :-)

The Royal Treatment

Emmett had his first professional haircut last month, and certainly had the red carpet rolled out for him! We went to Cookie Cutters, a cute little place especially for kids. We are growing out "the shag" on Emmett, but it desperately needed to be trimmed so that it could all grow out evenly at least.

I love this picture (above) because it looks like he's making "mirror face" and checking himself out in the mirror!

He even got to watch Spongebob on a little TV in front of him, and left with a balloon (his latest obsession). Genius! I wish my haircuts could be this fun!

Baby Oliver's Fantabulous Shower

We threw a baby shower for one of my best friends, Natalie, a few weeks ago. I was in charge of food and games and our friend Jordan did the decorations. The result was amazing! I think Jordan and I need to go into business together! haha. Natalie's theme was a nautical/under the sea theme with coral and turquoise.

Jordan did the drinks, and used mason jars and vintage straws. So cute!

On the bottom right are the DELICIOUS creamy chicken taquitos, which can be found here.

There is actually a funny story behind these... I was up late finishing all my baking the night before and asked Jared to help make the filling for the taquitos. We all know men aren't the most attentive to detail, and this case wasn't an exception. Instead of cumin, Jared used CURRY POWER, and ALSO accidentally doubled it. Luckily he was able to scoop some back out. (I didn't find out he had used curry powder til I was at Natalie's the next day!) BUT everyone was oohing and aahing over these taquitos and asking for the recipe!! haha. So all was well! And we now have a secret ingredient...mwahaha.

Okay so this picture doesn't do my sugar cookies justice, plus they had been transported in the car in the hot sun for over an hour by this point. But these were my biggest feat. I think I made 50-something of them and piped and flooded them all with royal icing. They were sooo good. I'm definitely keeping this recipe on hand for the future! 

              These were my "clams" . Cookies with pink icing and a yogurt covered raisin in the center.

And here's a zoomed out shot of the whole table. Jordan also did the cake with the cute banner, and notice all the cute decorations she did with her silhouette

Here's the 3 of us at the end of the shower. I didn't take any pictures of the rest of the decorations because I was so busy running around, but you can see some of them hanging behind us!
PS Don't judge my pictures...I don't exactly have the nicest camera, and Nat's mom's house has a big skylight at the top which made for some difficult lighting! haha

The games were a hoot, in particular the one where we made big 8x11 headshots of Josh and Natalie, and had people cut and paste them to make their "baby". The results were HILARIOUS! Let's just hope baby Oliver doesn't actually end up looking like any of them...

Thanks Natalie, for letting us help out! We can't wait to meet baby Oliver (who may be born at any minute now!)

Adventures at Hogle Zoo

Or as my mom called it - the "HOG-le Zoo". Hahaha sorry mom, I couldn't help it!

A couple weeks ago Jared had a 5 day weekend (gotta love Pioneer Day in Utah!) and we finally went to the zoo! I've been wanting to take Emmett all summer. It was a lot of fun. It maybe wasn't the BEST day considering it was packed because of Pioneer weekend and about 90 degrees, but that didn't stop us from having a good time!


Checkin out the ostrich with Gamby

 I invited my parents to bring Caysen and come with us too. Emmett loves Gamby and Gampy!

Twinners in their bucket hats and cheeser faces

                                                                                                

                                Taking a rest in the shade

Shooting the breeze with Uncle Caysen

                  "You guys go on ahead without me, I'm just gonna kick it here in the shade for a little while"

Cute little pygmy kangaroo things?....



He insisted on getting dangerously close to this bird





  

                                                                                                    

It is so much fun to take Em places now that he's getting old enough to enjoy them! On a somewhat related note, Emmett has gotten good at making his animal noises! His favorite is dog (woof woof) hands down, but he also likes sheep, cow, duck, monkey, bird, tiger, horse, and owl. He can also do the signs for dog and bird. Animals have become a pretty big deal in our house lately! Now we just need a pet.... :-)