wow

it's been a really long time, and i've been horrible at keeping up so i'll try to make up for it by making a longish boring list of all the stuff we've been up to! Brandon and I celebrated our three year anniversary in style (thanks to his parents) in our concierge suite at the park city marriott, we felt pretty ritzy for three wonderful fun filled days. we rode the alpine slides, the coaster, and went on a 20 mile tandem bike ride. gracie spent her first trip away from us and every night we went to bed talking about all the things we missed about being away from her. im serious. she was happy as could be when we got home to her, and cried half the way home because grandma wasn't coming back to our house with us. we are preparing for a new adventure in san diego, staying with my family (woot woot) until octoberish when (hopefully) brandon will be going out to virginia for three months of officer candidate school (pretty much bootcamp all over again) he just picked up sergeant this morning on his way out to AT for three weeks. i am very proud of him, he has worked very hard to become a marine officer, and was one of two people selected from the county that had their applications even submitted past the first two boards. gracie is becoming such a lively lovely girl. she runs constantly and spins around and around dancing wherever she goes. she is trying to open doors now, which is sort of frightening and reminds me of that scene in jurassic park where the velociraptor opens the kitchen door by itself. when she becomes cranky i just ask her if she wants to go nigh nigh and she nods and we lay her down and she goes to sleep. she is a sleeping champion. not sure who she gets that from... :] i am packing like a crazy lady and trying to get as many tips from pinterest as possible for cleaning a rental apartment. two weeks ago i accepted a job as a water aerobics teacher at the orem rec center, and i've loved every second teaching there but sadly we have to leave! i wasn't expecting to have to go so soon!!!! my favorite class is my prenatal hour, those girls are so fun and full of life (literally) ive been a baking machine as well, ive finally found my perfect pie crust recipe... and i've been experimenting with different birthday cakes. yesterday the family had a july birthday month party and i brought a chocolate cookies and cream filled cake with jimmies on top. i wish i'd gotten a photo of the decadent dish. grace is just babbling up a storm, she sounds like an indian turkey or something, gobbly gooking as she walks from thing to thing telling you exactly what she thinks of it. some of her new words are, baba, baby, buddy, nighnigh, and moo. she is growing up so fast! my mom is coming into town on monday and i am thrilled! she is going to help me move this entire house into storage, pack up my clothes, gracies, and all our important things and fly back within a week. when brandon gets back he will finish up with a few of the bigger things my mom and i cant lift and then pack his things and check out! if the officer canidate school doesnt work out utah can expect us to return for the fall/winter to see if brandon can take the GRE and get into BYU's MPA program for public administration. both paths are exciting and take us to new experiences and we are grateful for every one!

Wow, I have some major catching up to do. Its been a while since I had a spare moment to get on here and update our lives on the web! Also I've been a major slacker, because I'm being a major awesome mom! I love being a mom, grace is such a beautiful delightful handful. Full of fuls. I'm still not certain how to upload hoots onto this from my iPad but I'll figure it out someday. Until then, I've become one of those people who uploads every single stinking picture of their child on Facebook. Before grace was born I began a memory book for her and i have to admit that I havent been very good at printing photos for that either. Last week I gave grace her first haircut, her bangs were getting in her eyes and bothering her so I cut them a tiny bit. I taped her little lock of hair in the memory book so at least there will be one thing of her life in there besides ultrasounds... She is crawling like a speed demon and sage loves everyone. A church she walks from pew to pew holding onto the sides and visits all the old ladies during relief societ. My heart swells with pride for her, I mean, im turning twenty four this year and I'm still afraid to just walk up to people and get to know them. I'm getting my first summer cold sore, blechk! Brandon graduates magna cum laude this week and ian so proud of him! Grace turns one next month and we may be moving top San Diego soon, that will be so lovely. Cross your fingers that Brandon gets into officer training school and then our little life journey will take us to Virginia. I've always always always wanted to see Virginia, I grew up in Connecticut and really loved living on the east coast, plus I hear Virginia is for lovers. Well, I feel pretty pathetic not knowing how to upload photos, and that's really why I got on here in the first place! More later, J

about time

okay, it's about time i post some pictures from christmas! all of these are stolen from my lovely sister lachelle's iphone. the quality is amazing. i envy her entirely.

gere go.

nappy times.

okay, it's been a really long time since i blogged on this (i feel?) there hasn't been too much going on for me but i'm simply trying to keep up on that little girl grace! she is growing and learning so fast and some days it feels like i'm forcing her to take a nap with me because I NEED ONE.

i've really settled into the housewife thing a little bit. i've been trying all sorts of different recipes and have found a few keepers. last week i made some lemon tea cookies that were tiny and melted away in your mouth and pawned most of them off on my visiting teachees. (is that what you call the sisters you teach?) i even wrote them a cute note thanking them for breaking their new years resolutions to help me not become a huge blimp. sweet huh.

you know that special day in your childhood where your parents or your teacher has given you a chart with a specific to do item and stickers to mark off that you've done the task to keep yourself motivated? i'll never forget in first grade mrs. wheeler's class, she had a dentist come in and talk about the importance of dental hygiene- which believe me, would have been totally confusing if the guest hadn't brought all sorts of goodies and this incredible chart. the goal was to brush your teeth and floss daily twice for a month and then you'd get.... dun dun dun dunnnn a free SURPRISE. that surprise turned out to be a crummy toothbrush but still. i probably needed a new one after brushing as diligently as i did that month anyways.

it was a special special special special moment of my life. (sounds exciting huh)
oh but the point, the point is- brnadon and i have made a exercise chart.
yup.
one with shiny star stickers and every day of the months we're doing it
we both have goals and mine is to lose 30 pounds in three months.

today is one of those days where it feels like between an almost crawling 8 month old thinking everything is a toy and a 26 year old marine pulling all his drill gear out for the weekend my house is never going to be clean again.

those two wreak havoc.

i thought i was a messy person, and then i had a baby.

speaking of baby, grace has started saying ma ma. and it melts my heart into a million squishies.

yesterday i made a long pretty garland of hearts for the front window. dont ask me why but i'm thinking our christmas lights are going to stay up until it's hot again (not that 50 degrees in the dead of winter with no snow isn't warm enough) i'm really digging the lights with the hearts thing.

so my exercise routing involves spin three times a week for an hour with a half hour of eliptical before to warm up and then tues and thursday i do water aerobics with all the old orem people! i LOVE OLD PEOPLE. my favorite was a woman who walked into the gym wearing her bathrobe going to the pool.

i honestly tried to wear my bathrobe the next time and b barricaded the door and said absolutely no.
apparently old people can do awesome things that i cant.

still, it's something to look forward to.

like naps.