Two more from yesterday.

 How I wish this picture was in focus. I can't even bring myself to delete it.

Axel is getting teeth and looks like this a lot of the time right now.

Popsicles

It was hot today. Not as hot as it was in St. George. But hot anyway. Here's the pictures to prove it.

Pella, Iowa

Before my sister moved to Paradise, she lived half way across the country. Somehow, I was able to visit her pretty often.

Our visits made it Paradise.

See, when my sister and I get together we sing, cook, eat, laugh, watch movies, watch tv, and go on day trips. We've been to Omaha to watch Wicked, the birth place of John Wayne, the Bridges of Madison County... the actual bridges, not the movie... and one very memorable trip to Pella, Iowa.

Pella is the home to Pella Windows and Doors, Kyle Korver's hometown, and a tulip festival which I believe is going right now. Liz could give more details on the city of Pella and why they are the way they are. All I know is they call themselves a little Holland, there's a clockenspiel (I have no idea how to spell that), lots of delicious Dutch food including dutch letters, and lots and lots of tulips.

That trip which was just about 2 years ago.

I miss my sister. Why am I not in St. George right now instead of typing this stupid blog.

I'll be posting updated pictures of Axel very soon. He's six months old now.

Axel Heber Garff

Born November 9, 2011.

7lbs 10oz

21 1/4 "

Perfect in every way.

The dentist.

I almost like the adult surgical gloves better than the smile.

The dentist told me I should start flossing his teeth. It sucked.

I married a good man.

My husband loves to teach people how to water ski and wake board. A few weeks ago he took the 14 year old boys from our ward to help them earn their water ski merit badge or something. They had a blast. They camped overnight, went boating, and boated some more. The other leader that was there made a dvd of their trip and showed it at the last pack meeting. They all had a great time. One of the boys has a little brother who was so jealous he couldn't go, he's only 12. (And he's a hand full. Last Sunday we found him in our primary closet with a mouthful of nursery treats.) My husband is so kind, he invited him and his older brother to accompany us to do some water skiing.

Here is Ryan giving instruction to the boys. Grant has a mouthful of something he probably put in his mouth an hour ago. When he eats cheese, he sucks on it for so long it turns into milk.

The excited 12 year old. Ryan makes kids earn their way out of the orange life vests. This kid got up on a wake board on his second attempt. Sadly, I didn't get any pictures of his older brother or either of them in the water.

I would never invite two random kids from my church to go skiing. They won me over by the end of the evening. They were so nice to Grant, they took him swimming so I didn't have to, they shared their treats with him, they let him wear their sunglasses when he was complaining about the sun in his eyes. They were good kids.

The boys took about 50 pictures of me that day. They also made fun of me for my make up running all over my face after my run.

They said I was the best water skier ever. I didn't tell them any different. As far as they're concerned, it doesn't get any better than me. (Ryan didn't ski yesterday.)

Lake Powell 2011

I was blessed with in-laws that love to spend time with. How you not want to hang out with this guy?

My husband. Watching him ski is one of my favorite past times.

This is my father-in-law. He's 70 years old. Yes, 70.

Grant became a lifejacket swimmer.

I love Lake Powell. I love Lake Powell. I love Lake Powell.

This year we were joined by the super cool Evans family. Mae really is the epitome of cool, I'm so glad we're cousins, but even gladder that we're friends.

P.S. Have I mentioned that I'm pregnant? Due 11/11/11. It's a boy. I'm excited.

"Hey Dad, wanna have a catch?"

Four Years Down...Time and All Eternity to Go.

Four years ago today, I married this guy. We have a great story that I will treasure forever.

I think we'll celebrate at Sugar House Barbeque and eat chocolate cake.

Because...

I got ridiculed for not posting more pictures of my kid.

Happy Easter

The Magic Kingdom

When Ryan and I got married he told me he had a life goal to never go to Disneyland.

The things you do for love.

I was on the phone with my sister 3 weeks before the trip, I told her Ryan and I were planning a trip to Disneyland. Before I knew it, my sister and her family of 6 were coming with us. Read her blog about the trip here. We invited both of our little brothers to go as well and my mom joined us too! We also met up with our lifetime friends Kate and Doug.



We had a large group. When the cast members working the rides asked us how many were in our party, we proudly answered, "TWELVE!!!"



If you think Ryan didn't have fun, just look at this photo when he met Pluto.



The whole gang on Jungle Cruise.

Cousins!!! Please move to Utah. Grant loves you guys so much.




I have so many more pictures, maybe I'll just do a picture post.

Reunited and it feels so good.

Did you know my husband is in the military? He is and he's been deployed to the Middle East for the last 6 months. Well, he came home February 4th. I was so excited to pick my husband up at the airport, we got there a little early.

Grant hangs on anything he can find. He found this ledge at the airpot.



I couldn't stop staring at the escalator waiting for my husband's combat boots to appear at the top. Turns out a lot of military travel through the airport so after I saw 15 pairs of combat boots, I was nervous he wasn't coming home.



Then, I saw him. He looked so hot.



Grant fell instantly in love. He found out I'm the boring parent right away. He hasn't left Ryan's side, except when I won't give it up.



I feel very blessed to be a military wife. I have great pride in the United States of America, and I love and support our troops. Escpecially my husband.


I decided when he left I was going to keep a daily journal and give it to him as a gift upon his return home. I kept it for a week.

He missed quite a bit while he was gone.

Grant discovered basketball. He loves it!

I had a miscarriage, it was really tough. Luckily, I've been blessed with a mom who was there for me through the whole thing.

My mom got married. We had an awesome trip to Seattle to be there for the special occassion.

Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year, and my 31st birthday.

Tonight before you go to bed, say a prayer for the military. They work hard and make huge sacrifices. All of which they do with pride and honor.

Welcome Home Ryan!

A Close Call.

I almost got in a car accident today. On the freeway. I had to slam on my breaks to avoid rear ending the car ahead of me. It was the kind of incident that you want to pull off to the side of the road to collect yourself.

How did this happen, you ask?

Did someone cut me off? No.

Did someone swerve into my lane by mistake? No.

Did I hit black ice? No.

Was I texting? No.

Was I distracted by Grant? No.

I was listening to Les Miserables and was singing along...with my eyes closed.

I sounded phenomenal.

A Public Apology

I was supposed to meet my family at Temple Square tonight and look at the lights. I was so excited. My family is fun. Seriously fun.

We always seem to make wonderful memories at Temple Square during Christmastime. There was the year I punched my Uncle in the stomach thinking it was my friend, why I thought it was appropriate to punch my friend I'll never know. Then there was the year I showed up and saw my Uncles mother so bundled up sitting in her wheelchair that all you could see was the whites of her eyes and as soon as I saw her, I just started laughing. Righ.at.her. And let's not forget the year I made a comment about a certain some one's hat and he refused to wear it the rest of the night. I'm sure his ears got frostbite. Like I said, memories. This year was no different.

We were supposed to meet at 5:30 in front of the visitor's center "with the Jesus statue". I left my house at 4:00 to give myself ample time for parking which I knew would be a nightmare. I arrived downtown at 4:45 and drove around for an hour. Yes, an hour, looking for a spot. Every parking garage I found said FULL and never found a spot on the street. I started to scream in my car and every time I would yell, Grant would yell "KAAAY" back to me. SO, after driving for one hour looking for a spot and screaming like a madwoman, I finally double parked where I thought the "Jesus statue" was so I could run in and tell my family to go without me (I don't carry my cell phone much anymore). I threw my van in park, grabbed my kid, and ran to find that the "Jesus statue" was not where I thought it was.

FORGET ABOUT IT. I guess I'm not looking at the lights this year. I'm sure my family waited and waited wondering where in the hell I was.

This is where you might think the story ends. But, it doesn't.

I had an errand to run while I was in the big city. Yes, I call Salt Lake the big city. I had to go to Williams Sonoma and return something, which is why I didn't just ride the train in. I went to Trolley Square and decided I wanted to give the lights one more try. I really wanted to go. So, I went back. What a fool I was.

I found a public parking lot and decided to give it a try. Just as I pulled in, a van was loading to leave. Jackpot. I waited. I was the only car in sight. I was elated. I knew I wouldn't see my family, but I could enjoy the lights and the different Nativity Scenes. A truck turned the corner as the van was pulling out and a girl got out of the truck and walked into the spot and assumed a Peter Pan stance. Oh, hell no. I started to pull in the spot anyway, rolled down my window and said politely "I was waiting for this spot." "We've been driving around for like 20 minutes looking for a spot." "I don't care." And I just keep pulling forward until I was inches away from her then stopped. She asked "Are you going to hit me?" "Nope, but I'm not going to move either." I was shaking, I was scared, I was mad, I was feeling dumb, but I wanted to park my car and that spot was clearly mine. She moved.

I got out and everyone in the truck yelled at me "NICE CHRISTMAS SPIRIT LADY!"

"Thank you."

Grant cried the whole time looking at the lights.

So, I'm sorry. Sorry to my cousins for not showing up and sorry that I ruined those peoples' night.

Dear Uncle Scotty,

I can't wait to meet you.



Love,

Your Nephew Grant.

Two Weeks in Texas.

I went to Texas for Thanksgiving. It was magical. My son loves his grandpa so much. Every morning I would wake up to find my dad had done the dishes from the night before and he'd be cuddling with Grant on the couch while they both drank chocolate milk and watched tv.

We ate, played the Wii, ate, went shopping, ate, watched movies, ate,went for a surrey ride(a surrey is a horse drawn buggy used in the old days to transport people from the train station to hotels. don't feel bad if you didn't know what a surrey was. I didn't either but pretended I did so my step mom wouldn't know how dumb I am), played with Frankie the dog and tortured Felix the cat, ate, watched season one of Modern Family, cut down our own Christmas Tree, ate, drank super special grape juice, and did I mention we ate?

My dad works a lot. He tells me on the phone that he's working a lot of hours and I would think "Yeah, yeah, yeah. You say you're working day and night but you're really not. How can someone really work all day and all night. He's just exaggerating." But seriously, he works all day all night and all day. He even took it easy while I was there so he could hang out with us and give me and Grant nouggies (how do you spell that?).

Those two weeks went by way too fast. The morning we woke up in our own beds, Grant was standing up in his crib yelling, "Grandpa! Grandpa! Grandpa!" He was pretty disappointed to see me, he knew he'd be getting white milk.

Thanks for such a great visit. We love you so much.

What I've Learned Lately.

Okay, another post about parenting. But seriously, I have nothing else going on right now.


~If the chicken I made for dinner is too hot for myself, I probably shouldn't feed it to my toddler. He screamed and kept trying to scrape layers off his tongue.

~If my 1 1/2 year old gets crumbs in my bed because I let him bring crackers in my bed, it's my fault. Not his.

~No matter how much I want him to, Grant is not going to sit through a movie in the theater anytime soon. I don't think I'm going to pay $8 to hang out in a hallway anymore.

~If you have a tendency to say things like shit, damn, and hell they may be repeated by your toddler.

~Your kids are way less annoying if you actually pay attention to them instead of trying ignore them so you can look up secret people on facebook.

~I should not watch those damn, I mean darn, cop dramas on TV. Too scary for me.



~If I put my fingers in my son's mouth to check for new teeth, I'm going to get bit. Again, my fault, not his. I still bit him back.

I hope this doesn't sound like a bunch of complaining. I love my life more than I thought possible.

How couldn't I?

The moments that make it all worth it.

I was trying to think of words that describe motherhood.

Here's what I came up with:

fun

funny

wonderful

challenging

indescribable

hard

spiritual

I know, I'm not very good with words. If the blog princess were writing this, she would have such better words than that.



I had one of those unexpected moments that make you so happy and giggle with excitement in motherhood.



I was giving Grant a bath and playing the repeat game with him.

I would say bath and he would say bath. I would say Georgie and he would say Georgie. I would say Daddy and he would say Daddy. Then it happened. I said I and he said I. Then I said love and he said love. The before I had the chance to say you, he screamed Mama.



Being a mom is the best.

The Not So Distant Future and Right Now

(In no specific order.)

1. My dad bought me an airplane ticket to visit him for two weeks for Thanksgiving. I'm going to cook for him. Hint: I like compliments when I cook. Seriously.

2. I'm visiting my sister in January. I'm flying out on 1/11/11. So cool.

3. Keeping up with the Kardashians. I'm obsessed. I love Netflix.

4. Christmas is right around the corner. I'm already shopping and I'm putting my tree up next week. Jewel Christmas is played non-stop around here. (Shhh, Jewel.)

5. I need to find a babysitter for 3 hours in November. I need to get my Harry Potter on.

6. On Dancing with the Stars, Rick Fox said when he first entered the NBA, Larry Bird told him one thing, "In the NBA, we play hurt." Where did that attitude go?

7. I'm trying so hard to stop biting my nails. I've been told "Sara, if you're hungry go to the kitchen and get something to eat. We don't eat our fingers." I've got to stop.

8. My house is a total mess. I'm so emabrassed. It's like when I was a kid and my room got so messy and I just didn't know where to start so I just don't do anything and turn on another episode of Keeping up with the Kardashians.

9. I had such a fun lunch with my mom the other day. Grant used chopsticks.

10. I love fall. I can wear clothes that my mashed potato arms aren't hanging out. I took Grant to a pumpkin patch.

11. Stories of this day coming soon.