life lately, according to the photo dump.

here it is. life the last month, in photos
(all via my phone, of course)

super pleased with herself for emptying out the tissue box while i did dishes.

first time on a hammock with aunt chelsea :)

mom & baby selfies

trying any new foods we can think of. she's pretty skeptical of a lot of them.

fell asleep on a walk the other day. that hasn't happened since she was a newborn.

my cute mother in law packed me a full meal for lunch one day & had it ready for me when i dropped gracie off to her. complete with a note and even more notes inside with the food!

when all else fails & momma needs a break...

a walk around station park to pass time til daddy got off work.

everytime i see this picture and that face (those cheeks!), i think it looks exactly like me when i was a baby.

jae grilled up these delish brats and kabobs. SO good.

church selfies :)

had to wake her up the other morning to go to physical therapy.

she looked so sweet & was so sleepy, i felt so bad.

 

 new cookies/crackers to try. she loves them but they are MESSY.

we went to dinner & she completely turned herself around in her chair to face other people.

didn't want to look at boring mom & dad!

 

 

 

first zoo visit!

 

clearly she likes to turn herself around & face backwards a lot.

solids.

we are already here.
well, actually we've been here for almost two months now.
gracie is eating solids!
we're slowly introducing more and more and she's doing so good!

so far she's tried sweet potatoes, carrots, squash, green beans, peas, rice cereal, prunes, applesauce, pears, peaches, bananas, chicken, turkey, prunes, pumpkin and maybe one or two more that i can't remember. i've even tried giving her some little puffs to see how well she can pick them up and get them to her mouth. she's not too bad at picking them up but not so great at figuring out how to get them in her mouth yet. and when i tried putting one in her mouth so she could see what it was, she made some awesome disgusted faces until it fell out of her mouth. so i'm thinking she's not quite ready for those yet :)

she loves fruits mixed with her cereal for breakfast.
the meats and veggies are growing on her still, i think. heck, veggies are still growing on me.

she's getting the hang of eating and for the most part gets her tongue out of the way so i can actually put the spoon in her mouth. it's kind of just hilarious. i'll say open! and hold the spoon up and she'll open her mouth and move her tongue around, waiting for the spoon.

she just gives us this look like i'm not sure what that was but i think i want to try more.
the cutest!

richh.

we're eating this at work today:

what are you eating?

mother's day.

mother's day!

my mom isn't one to want "stuff", she always likes to go places or do things with family for her presents, so we decided to have a girls dinner out, just my sisters, my mom, and i. we have NEVER done that before. just us girls. no grandkids or boys. it was so fun :)

mom picked The Garden Restaurant at the Joseph Smith Memorial building downtown SLC. all the tulips were planted and the sun was shining and it was beautiful!

{we missed you so much, our chinese sister Anne!!}

mom actually got me a present for mother's day.....a baby boy outfit and a baby girl outfit (this was before we found out we're having a girl, of course). they were soooo cute.

i told them to all turn around, and these are the poses i got....what a bunch of dorks :)

and when i got home, my sweet husband and sweet puppy dog had these waiting for me! they smelled lovely and had the sweetest note written to go with them. thanks Jae and Zoey! i am one happy and lucky mom-to-be.

just a note for my lovely mother:

mom, i'm grateful for all the life lessons you've taught me. we didn't always get along when i was younger (that's what teenagers are for, right? to be a pain for their mothers??) but we have a much better, much more understanding relationship now, and for that - i am so grateful. i cannot wait to start this journey of being a mother myself, and know you'll be right by my side to help with anything and everything, full of advice and knowledge. i already know i couldn't do it without you!

love you mom!

a disappointing breakfast.

two days in a row! two days in a row, i've had a disappointing breakfast, to the point that i just threw the small amount of food that was left, away. i know - i've got BIG problems over here. nothing like starvation or poverty or cancer. but disappointing breakfasts. wah wah. woe is me.

but seriously - when i get to work and i feel like my stomach and baby in my stomach are going to turn on me and eat me alive from the inside-out (dramatic, eh?)....all i want is a good, filling breakfast. and all i got was nothing of the sort.

so anyway....onto other things in life besides food (it's hard to avert my attention to other things lately - i'm totally in the eat-all-the-time stage now)...

in the last week(ish) we have:

-started a refinance on our house (who doesn't want to save $100+ on their mortgage every month?)

-consolidated loans into one, with one interest rate and one monthly payment (if you haven't done this yet, you really should look into it!)

-sold our truck (of course, all it took was putting our truck loan with another loan and then someone wanted to buy it, so we basically had to undo most of what we did like, two days ago! God has a sense of humor, i tell ya)

-found a new truck we really like late last night but were super at putting our foot down and not accepting any deals that were more than what we said we'd pay. i was proud of us! and we even left the dealership, with a hopeful promise from the sales guy that he'd have a different manager today that would make our deal work (and we did get a call already this morning that they can do it...) so hopefully we'll be new (used) truck owners by the end of today

-and to top of this week, on friday we find out what flavor style of baby we're having!!!!!!!!!!!!!
little excited, ok?

most these things, i'm sure most of you don't care about. but they've been keeping us on our toes lately and life is busy! but life is good!

and to lighten your day (because it lightens my mood every time i look at it), i present the pup:

happy tuesday friends! xoxo.

a bit of catch-up: letting the cat out of the bag.

now that we finally have internet again at our house (yahoo!), i found some pictures on our laptop that i never blogged about. one being the day we celebrated Jae's and my birthdays plus let my family in on the big baby secret!

monday february 18th:

we started the day with lunch with my family at olive garden.

then we came back to our house for some hanging out, games, cake, and ice cream.

{and the announcement that no one knew was coming! :)}

Jae's cake (courtesy of my mom)

my cake (courtesy of mom)

singing happy birthday to eachother

annnd the presenting of the surprise cake :) i am sad we didn't have one of us ready with the camera to catch the reaction of everyone. but it was classic! lots of screaming from my mom and sisters.

so fun.

burgers & cards & 70+ degree weather.

we had the most gorgeous spring weekend. everyone in utah has already talked about it via fb, blog, whatever else......but i must chime in. they're all telling the truth! it was amaaaazing!!!!

we had a fun, busy, happy saturday together, just Jae, pup, and i. we joined in the bbq-ing fun for dinner saturday night at the oveson's. then played cards (i love playing cards. torrie - hand and foot??! i'm dying to play it!)

sunday was another lovely day. sleeping in, church, after-church nap, multiple NBA play-off games, pre-dinner walk with pup, dinner at home just us, then bedtime for all of us. we were pooped from our awesome weekend :)

and then, in typical monday morning fashion.....as Jae and i were getting ready for work this morning, i spotted a mouse. IN OUR HOUSE. (yes, i realize that rhymes, but no, it's not funny or on purpose or me trying to be smart....the fact is there was a mouse in our house.) i saw it, and turned around babbling something not totally coherent about a mouse in our house, and Jae said 'uh yeah, i saw that too'. i later noticed the little stink again in our kitchen, and it went under the door into our spare bedroom/nursery. i ever so carefully blockaded the entire doorway, as well as the doorways into the kitchen, just to make sure it wouldn't get out to another part of the house. we'll see what it all looks like when we get home....SO GROSS.

hawaii.

we spent a lovely week on the island of Oahu. we stayed in Ko Olina, to be more specific....we were surrounded by multiple super nice resorts. we went with our cute friends Cody and Stephanie Hale, and they were basically our personal tour guides, since we've never been and they've been multiple times. we had a big nice pool area, and our own beach right outside our hotel, but we spent most of the days driving to the north shore side of the island to explore other beaches.

i could take this trip and break it up in different posts, but honestly - that sounds like way too much work right now. so i'll just tell you this - outside of spending time at our own resorts pool and beach, we spent time snorkeling in Hanauma Bay, watching the biggest waves we've ever seen at Waimea Bay, hiking to Maunawili Falls, watching whales jump out of the water (!!!), at the LDS temple and PCC in Laie, eating (a lot), walking around the swap meet, watching late night movies (and falling asleep every time), annnd in the car driving to all of these fun places (aka a lot of time spent on the Kamehameha highway). we made multiple stops for shaved ice, had more than one excellent burger, the best super nachos of my life, and a giant breakfast called a Loco Moco that Jae was told we had to try. so try we did. and it was definitely worth it. i just might have to do another post on all the food itself. it really does deserve its own post.

anyway! onto the pictures.........
{there are a lot...good luck with that.}

view from our condo.

Pali lookout. SO unbelievably windy. it doesn't look so bad til you get up there. recommendation: don't wear a skirt or have your hair down. no bueno, i tell you.

super nachos at killer tacos!! craving some right now.

the waves were HUGE.

body surfing.

matsumoto's shaved ice. yes, please.

hike to maunawili falls

that was Jae's jump. i sort of missed it...whoops.

A WHALE! JUMPING! OUT OF THE WATER!! and i got a picture. it was pretty spectacular.

snorkeling at haunama bay. snorkel gear is so attractive.

pineapple ice cream!

loco moco. Jae had never tried it before, but craves this frequently since then.

my delicious french toast. i get french toast everywhere i go.

our last afternoon was spent at this lovely LDS temple. gorgeous day and gorgeous temple.