Halle: 9 Months

Okay, okay, I know that my blogging break didn't last long. I almost made it a full week and after my 100 days straight, a full week is an eternity!  

I had to break the silence because our little Halle is 9 months old today.  It is amazing to me that she has been in our family for nine months. How is it that nine months goes so slow when you are pregnant and so incredibly fast after they are born.  We love our little girl so much and are so grateful that she is part of our family.

Halle: 9 months

Ryan: 9 months

I don't think they look anything alike ;)

Today we had Halle's nine month check-up and her stats were:

Weight: 19.10 pounds (76%)

Height: 31 inches long (100%)

Head Circ.: 18 cm (92%)

I am hoping that we will have a future basketball player on our hands because she is super tall! She is actually 2 inches longer than Ryan was at 9 months. 

I always like to keep track of our kids' milestones on here so ignore this part if you find it completely boring.

Halle is not quite crawling yet but she knows how to get around. She rolls, scoots, and stretches to reach a toy.

Almost there...

Assuming the position

She is wearing all 12 month clothes (some of which are getting too short on her) except for her shoes. Surprisingly, she has pretty small feet and still wears a 1 or 2. 

She says "da-da" "ba-ba" and "ma-ma" but mostly she just babbles in her own little language.

She LOVES patty-cake and laughs when we all clap with her.

Her face absolutely lights up when her dad walks into the room.

She loves to eat, especially finger foods. Her favorite foods are graham crackers, bananas, small pieces of cheese, whole green beans, cooked carrots, and the occasional taste of cake, jello, or pudding :).

She likes using the sippy cup but it is still a work in progress.

Her favorite toys are her Nemo book, a ball bopper thing, one of Ryan's Toy Story action figures, and anything that makes noise.

She has seven teeth, the eighth is being stubborn but should show it's face in the next little bit.  

When she gets really mad, Halle arches her back and turns bright red. I think this can be pretty traumatic for Ryan. He always says, "Mom, Halle is crying. She is sooo sad!"

Halle laughs harder for Ryan than anyone.

We call her, Hals-a-bals (don't ask, I don't know where it came from), Halle girl, Halle-bo-Balle, and princess.

I hate this picture of me but LOVE this picture of Halle! She is such a happy girl!

We are so excited to see her grow and watch her change every day. 

Finally....#100

Drum roll please.....
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For my 100th Day of Happiness, I have decided that I have enjoyed this whole experience so much that I am extending it to 150 days. 

Can you believe it, 50 more posts that most of you really don't care about, another 50 days of reading my blog every day, and best yet, I get to come up with 50 more things that make me happy!

PSYCH!

There is no way that I can continue this thing. I have enjoyed it, but today I am happy that this is over!

I learned a lot about myself and I think that I am a pretty happy person. I have challenged a few people to do this same experiment and none of them will even attempt it, so I feel pretty good about the fact that I finished it.  

If anyone is contemplating starting this for themselves, I say go for it! Serious. Just do it! Yes, it has been hard, yes, I have been frustrated at times, and yes, I am excited for a blogging break.  However, I sort of became addicted to it and I felt almost guilty if I missed a day.  I think that I really do recognize the little things and the people in my life that really make me happy.

It's a mystery...

Somehow while blogger was down, my last post was completely deleted.  I have no idea what happened but if you missed it, #98 was my nieces and nephews.

I also completely missed #99 because I couldn't log on at all yesterday. Weird.  

My 99th happy is Matt's family. I have mentioned my family multiple times before but I have really great in-laws and can't overlook them.  

Matt is really blessed with one of the closest families I have ever seen. Almost all of his cousins, aunts and uncles, and siblings live in Springville.  It really amazes me even after being part of their family or nearly six years. They have traditions for almost every holiday and they are really pretty fun traditions. 

Just last night his cousins put together an International night. Everyone was invited but you had to bring a dish from wherever you served your mission or somewhere you have traveled. It was so yummy. We had a traditional Mexican Taco bar, authentic Brazilian lemonade, some homemade Guacamole, rice and beans from the Dominican Republic, some interesting dish from Korea, and these dumpling things from Canada.  It was really a lot of fun!  Tomorrow morning is their families annual "La Copa."  This started about 4 years ago and it is a huge soccer game for anyone and everyone to play in. They have a cheap cup from Ross Dress for Less that they pass on each year to the winner. It is hillarious. Check out this video that his cousin Tim made for it......

If you look really close, I am in the video even :) All the flags represent all the different countries represented by their family (from their missions).

In addition to his crazy cousins, Matt's immediate family is really great too.  They have always been so good to me. I really appreciate them and they really do make us happy!

Grandma Tammy and Halle

The kids having fun with Grandpa 

"Twinners"

The siblings...Matt, Callie, Natalie, Todd

They really are a great family and I love having such a fun relationship with them.  

#98...Almost Done!

I think that I might have the cutest nieces and nephews on the face of the planet. Seriously, our family is blessed.  These kids make me incredibly happy!

Matt's sisters have seven total kids and they are so much fun! His sister is actually pregnant and due in July so that will make 8.  Ryan and Rhett are best friends and absolutely love being with each other. All of the kids are wonderful and play really well together. 

Ryan and Rhett

Tyson and Ryan (Tyson is the oldest and Ryan idolizes him!)

All the kids (minus Halle, she's asleep in the stroller in the background) at the pool in St. George

On my side of the family we have a total of 6 cousins. We don't get to see them quite as often but when we do, it is great!  It is hard to know that we have a niece and a nephew that we haven't even met. We are so excited for this summer when we can all be together!

Brynn and Addysen

Calder

Bella and Calder

97 DOWN, 3 TO GO!

I can't have a list of 100 happy's and leave out my dad.  I kinda feel like he was gypt in this whole thing because his birthday and Father's Day aren't until June. I have talked about him once or twice on my list but today he gets his own post. 

If any of you know my dad, you probably love him and think he is one of the nicest people you have ever met. I am sure if there was an anonymous poll taken of all of my family (extended included) he is probably everyone's favorite uncle and relative.  He has a goofy sort of sense of humor that just makes everyone laugh. If you have ever heard him sing, "Oh what a beautiful morning....." or do his so-called Bird Call, you know what I am talking about. Sometimes we are laughing at him, but for the most part we are all laughing with him.  

I am so grateful that we live close to my parents and get to spend more time with them.  There has been more than one occasion where we have met my dad for lunch or something during the day and we all love it. 

Ryan can't get enough of his Grandpa Tweet-Tweet! He does this thing with Ryan where they play football. I wish I had it on video to show all of you how funny it is. My dad gets this look on his face and says in the goofiest voice, "TWO - FORTY TWO" and continues to go tackle Ryan. It is hilarious and Ryan begs him to do it.

Grandpa and Halle

Mowing the lawn with Grandpa

I am also grateful that my dad has shown all of us (his kids) how to work hard and support his family. I can't ever really going without or even feeling like we were skimping by. I know that there have been hard times but my dad never would let any of us know it.  He is always looking out for everyone else but himself!  

Thanks Dad!

96 DOWN, ONLY 4 TO GO!

If you have not experienced the greatness of this place, you are totally missing out.  This place is incredible. The former owner of Cafe Rio opened this place about a year ago in Orem. It is similar to Cafe Rio's set-up and idea but Cafe Paesan serves Italian food rather than Mexican.  We have been there a couple of times and every time I leave 100% satisfied. 

This last time I got the Apple Braised Pork Pizza. I loved it so much I actually finished my pizza, went back and ordered a second one, and ate the entire second pizza too. Really, I am not kidding here. I ate two pizza's because it was so delicious.  If you are in Utah county any time soon you have to check it out!  

The pizza that I am in love with is the bottom right of this picture. You can also see one of their flat-bread sandwiches and a made to order pasta.   

Happy!

95 DOWN ONLY 5 TO GO!

I am so excited that I am on my last 5!   I can't believe that I've actually stuck it out for so long.

In honor of Mother's Day, I am happy to be a MOM!  It is such a cool job. My kids and I had some major bonding time over the last week and I have learned to appreciate them so much more.

Halle has the cutest smile and she does this thing with her arms. She gets so excited to see something she wants, like a bottle, food, or lately a book; and she waves her arms up and down super fast and breathes so hard it seems like she is going to hyperventilate. It is priceless. She is also wanting to crawl and rocks back and forth really hard, only to fall face first on the ground. This sounds painful but, I can laugh at this because she is always so happy while doing it.  These things make me happy. It makes me happy to watch her hit those milestones!

Ryan says some of the funniest things! I am amazed at how much he understands and says. Some of his funny things over the past few days are:

"If I am bad, Grandpa Dodo will flush me down the toilet!"

"Mom, can I just go pee on dat tree out there?" (We had been driving for three hours at this point and I was trying to find a place to stop. I kept telling him to hold it.)

"You wanna piece of me!?!"

Me: "Please don't throw the ball in the house Ryan."
Ryan looks at me, throws the ball, smiles, and says, "I will go to time-out. O-tay?"

When he wants to get away from you and do something he knows he isn't supposed to he says, "I'll be right back, o-tay?"

Tonight as I was telling him good-night he said, "Happy Mother's Day Mommy. Te Amo Mommy"  It was the cutest thing I have ever heard. I guess Matt had taught him how to say I love you in Spanish and Ryan remembered.

Although I have to keep a serious face when he says some of this stuff, I have to laugh too. He is such a character!

MOM moments like these are a big happy in my life!

Day 94: My House

After a week away from home, today I was really happy to see our house. 

This is our little family 2 years ago when we moved into our house

Ignore the weeds in the background but I love our tulips too!

Our house makes me happy.

It may not be the home of our dreams, but for now it is perfect!  

Day 93: The pictures say it all!

Not much makes me happier than this:

Sorry Grandma, for some reason this is the only picture I had of you and the kids...weird, I know. 

We had a wonderful trip to Idaho.

Seriously....grandparents are the best!

Happy!

Day 92

Sometimes a nice juicy steak makes me extremely happy!  We had a great dinner tonight: A medium-rare steak, baked potato, green beans, and a green salad. Yumm! It makes such a big difference when a steak is cooked just right and tonight it was perfect.  So good!

Day 91: Dawnee

Although I love all of my aunts, today my Aunt Dawnee makes me happy!  This is one of the reasons I love visiting Idaho.  Dawnee is kind of like a second mom to me. She is one of the most selfless people I know and always spoiled us rotten as kids! My kids adore her and she always makes me smile! We spent the day with her today and she took the kids to the park.  As you can tell, they had a blast! Thanks Dawnee!!!

She just woke up so she isn't quite in the picture taking mood yet.



"Higher Dawnee, higher!"



I am not sure how much Halle likes this horse but Ryan loved it!

Weeeeeee!

Day 90: Idaho

Yeah! I am down to my last 10!

I don't know what it is about Idaho, but it makes me happy!  My dad used to say that the air just feels better in Idaho. He used to cross the state line when we were driving, take in a huge breath of air, and claim that he "feels better already!"

The kids and I made a last minute trip to Boise this week and I just love Idaho. I love the people in Idaho. I love the openness of Idaho. I love all of my memories from Idaho. 

(I will post pictures later, my grandma's computer won't let me upload my pictures for some reason and I don't have the patience to figure it out right now)

Day 89: My IPOD

Today I am totally happy that I have an IPOD. My playlist on my IPOD absolutely saved me today on a long long drive.  I will give more of an update tomorrow but for now, I am happy that I had an IPOD on a 7 hour drive with my two kids. No other adults. Just the three of us. I sang along with artists like Blessid Union of Souls, Tim McGraw, Tyrone Wells, a few American Idol contestants, Keith Urban, Train, Bruno Mars, and even a little Ricky Martin.  It is a fantastic playlist and therefore a happy in my life!

Day 88

For some odd reason, Sam's Club (I would say Costco but there isn't a Costco close to our house) makes me happy. This really makes no sense at all if you really think about it considering I always end up spending way too much when I go there.  However, we always tend to have a good time when we go to Sam's.  I thank my parents for this one. I remember going to Sam's club on a Saturday with my dad and we would have lunch by eating the samples, thanks Dad! Plus, what is better than shopping for groceries, looking at super cute baby clothes, and eating pizza or Nathan's hot dogs all under one roof.  Genius if you ask me! There have even been nights were we are bored and don't want to cook; guess what, we go to Sam's, grab some cheap dinner, and shop around a little bit. Pathetic, I know, but at the same time, happy!