summer and the living is easy

Nothing says summer to me like living in your swim suits and pruney fingers and toes.

at mommy & me swim classes with Megan and Olive

Aunt Sammy, Morgan, and Erin don't like to swim without Jude.

Jude's friend, Jude

little mr. loves to talk to himself in the mirror. it's how i can keep him entertained while taking a shower or making dinner. i just sit him in front of the mirror and he'll just chat and giggle to himself. it's the cutest thing.

sorry it's sideways

i'm a lucky girl

*these are from Easter. Look at Jude he looks like a little baby compared to his 7 month old self now. My cute sister-in-law took them and I'm in love. I've got the cutest boys in the world.

just so you know, we're famous

I was directed to this cute site from her and fell in love. What a sweet way to share love stories and be inspired by others. Love love love.
I submitted one of my favorite pictures of us and got an e-mail a couple weeks later saying they had put it up! We are among the cutest lovers of the world. Check it out here.

We'll be signing autographs later.

all in the details

here are a few fun details from our little apartment that just happens to be in a cute, old house.

that just happened

Well...we are skipping from newborn to 6 months. 

I am the mother of a 6 month old. What?!

0.5 years.

I could tell you that life has been crazy. In these 6 months celebrated birthdays and weddings and lots of firsts, went on our first family trip to Cali, moved into our very own apartment, among other things, all on about 5 hours of sleep. This kid eats like a big boy now, is trying to figure out how to crawl, and (FINALLY) has his own room. Through all his teething, growing pains, and all the ups and downs of being a 6 month old, he still manages to steal my heart.

i've fallen in love many times, always with you

loving you is easy

I just wanted to let you all know that I am loving being a mom to this little cutie. Never have I felt so fulfilled as I do taking care of Jude. There are rough times with poopy diapers, late nights, and barf all down my shirt but I get paid with smiles, LAUGHS, and sweet little cuddles and I could not ask for more.

ps these are some baby leggings i made for jude dude the other day. so simple and easy. and look at those rolls man.

better than pants any day. tutorial found here

newborn

When Jude was just a few weeks old, my sister's good friends, Nick & Erica, took some pictures for us.
Nick & Erica are a good husband & wife team. I guess the day they took these pictures, they found out Erica is pregnant! Congrats guys!
These are some of our favorites:

 
 

 

Go to their blog for more info

new/old favorites

two of our new favorite restaurants are

1) Buffalo Wild Wings

We used to go when we lived in Ohio & Texas a couple summers ago so we were so excited that one opened up in Lehi. We got brave and went opening day.

2) Station 22

I kept hearing about how great this place was, so I took Brit with me. We both got the Adventist (veggie burger) and thought it was to die for. We'll be back soon.

Thanks for the pics Brittany. 

pinterest finds

These all have something in common. All having to do with my new years resolution to be a healthier/fit me.

This is the coolest app ever. First of all, it's FREE!!! Second of all, it's full of really awesome workouts. All different kinds and different time lengths for those days when you have an hour to workout or just 15 minutes. You can sync music from your iPod. When a workout pops up that you don't know how to do, just play the instructional video. You earn more workouts the more you workout. Just try not to sweat with Nike Training Club.

These Biggest-Loser oatmeal pancakes are the bomb and at 68 calories each, you can eat quite a few without feeling guilty.

Ingredients:

6 egg whites
1 cup rolled oats, dry
1 cup cottage cheese
2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla 

Instructions:
In a blender, blend all ingredients until smooth. Heat a griddle or large non-stick skillet over medium-low heat. Spray with non-stick cooking spray. For each pancake pour 1/4 cup of batter onto griddle. Flip when they start to bubble. Cook until golden brown. Repeat with remaining batches, spraying the griddle as needed. Makes about 10 pancakes.

Last but not least, broccoli-quinoa casserole. Delish. I added a little chicken.

One 10 oz can condensed Cream of Broccoli soup (or mushroom), low-sodium if you prefer

1/3 cup reduced fat mayonnaise (original called for 1 full cup. WOW.)

2 tablespoons milk

1 1/4 cups reduced fat shredded cheese (cheddar, colby-jack, etc)

1/2 teaspoon Splenda/sugar

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Dash freshly grated nutmeg

.
2 cups cooked broccoli

1 1/2 cups  COOKED quinoa (see note)

Feshly grated Parmesan cheese

.
To cook quinoa:

3/4 cup quinoa

1 1/2 cups water

1/4 teaspoon salt

.
Rinse quinoa in a fine sieve until water runs clear.  In a small saucepan combine the quinoa, water, and salt.  Bring to a boil over high heat.  Reduce heat to low and cover.  Cook for 18-20 minutes, or until fluffy and the white ring/tail is visible.  Fluff with a fork.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and coat a shallow (8×8 in or 5-6 cups) casserole dish – or individual ramekins – with vegetable cooking spray.

In a large bowl combine the soup, mayonnaise, milk, shredded cheese, Splenda, pepper, and nutmeg until well mixed. Stir in the quinoa and broccoli.
Spoon mixture into prepared casserole.  Sprinkle on a couple tablespoons of Parmesan and bake for 35-40 minutes (20-25 minutes for ramekins) or until bubbly on the edges and golden.  Makes 8 generous 1/2-cup servings.

the things we do

Hands down, my top 2 favorite things to do with my little Jude dude when it's just me and him are:

1) take a nap

and 2) take a bath

the past 7 weeks

You may have heard about a cute boy name Jude. Well, here he his! Baby boy is 7 weeks old! 


In the past 7 weeks...

• we found out Mr. Man is in the 98th percentile. (That means he's bigger than 98% of babies out there.)
• he's already growing out of some of the 3 month clothes we have for him. (Newborn sizes were kind-of a joke.)
• Jude has celebrated his first Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years! (Although he slept through Christmas morning, and ringing in the New Year. He must be a baby.)
• my sweet little guy slept for 7 hours straight one night! 7 hours!!! (It was a one time occurance, however. I'm just thankful when he does 3-4 hours normally.)
• little Jude dude smiles all the time! Melts my heart even at 2:30 AM. And he has started to "talk" to us. (Although I guess we can't count "goo" as his first word.)

It's crazy how different life can be with 3 instead of 2. But it's also crazy how natural it felt.He fits just perfectly into our family and we are loving every minute with him. 

time waits for no one

photo

2011 is the year...

• my beautiful boy was born
• my husband was accepted into the Accounting Program @ BYU
• we vacationed  on an island 
• we celebrated our 2nd year of marriage

...among many other things.

2012 is the year...

• we will live in our own place again
• my baby boy will grow even bigger
• we will run a 1/2 marathon

...among many other things.

I would be lying if I said I was sad to see 2011 go. It was a wonderful but hard year. We've learned so much and I hope I always remember it fondly. 
2012, here we come.  

hey Jude

My sweet little Jude Matthew Walker was born November 15, 2011 in the afternoon. All 10 lbs 10 oz, 22 inches of him.

It's hard to describe just how intense labor & delivery is. But it's equally as hard to describe the beauty of it. How empowering it is. The relief after. And the joy of finally meeting this little miracle that grew inside you for 9 months.

And so, our adventure begins.

just the two of us

"First we had each other.

Than we had you.

Now we have everything."

via

We had a realization the other night that pretty soon, it's not going to be just us anymore.

For the past 2+ years it's been just us. 

I have absolutely loved our time together and I wouldn't change it for anything in the world. 

Griffin will always be my Number 1.

But I know I speak for both of us when I say that we can't wait to be a little family of 3.

And to share our time and love with a cute little boy that we brought to this world.

Come on little boy.

We're ready for you.

life is wonderful

 photo via

Wow, it's been a while. 

I have just been overwhelmed with joy for so many things, I just needed to share.

• My wonderful mother and family threw me a fantastic baby shower last weekend. Beautiful soups, and desserts were enjoyed. My beautiful friends and family came and showered baby with cute little books and booties, blankets and hats, cute little outfits. It was a wonderful day and I just won't ever forget it.

• Me and Griffin washed, dried and folded all of baby's clothes this weekend (which is a lot for someone who is not even born yet. 3 loads of laundry!) As we were going through the clothes, I kept hearing Griff say, "Well that's not cute or anything," or "It's just so tiny!" We can't seem to stop talking about our little man over here. Every once in a while, I will look over and find him just smiling at me and my (rather large) belly and he'll say, "I just want can't wait to hold him." It's just the sweetest thing and makes my (rather large) belly, and many aches and pains, less of a burden.

• Conference this weekend was just what I needed. I enjoyed every talk and hymn sung. Elder Andersen's talk about families and bearing children was just what I needed to hear. 

• I could tell you that being home all day most every day is so boring and awful but I get to take naps whenever I want, go to dinner with friends, catch up on some Grey's Anatomy on Netflix, read lots of new books, etc. It's awesome. And the change in weather is so so welcome in my book. 

• Only 1 more month left! I couldn't ask for more, unless of course our little guy decided to come today...just sayin. 

best weekend, like ever

Happy 2 years to me and my love! We enjoyed our last summer weekend together up in Midway, UT at a friends perfect little cabin.(actually, the same cabin we stayed at the night we got marriaged.) We enjoyed playing games together (Scrabble, Sequence, Racko) and a relaxing swim at the crater, a trip to the outlets in Park City, and just each other.
Love Midway. Love him. Love marriage.

I Hypnobirth

Before I got pregnant, I always thought an epidural was the way to go in labor. Of course, I would never want to experience all that pain that I had heard so much about. But then, last summer, I had a good friend introduce me to Hypnobirthing, a way of natural birth. When she first told me about it, I thought, "Wow, you're a crazy person. Why would you ever do that?" But the more she told me about it, the more it made sense. With Hypnobirthing, you learn that pain, and fear do not have to accompany labor. And that if pain and fear do accompany you to your labor, it causes your body to tense up and close, not allowing it to do what it naturally knows how to do. With the Hypnobirthing program, you exercise positive thinking, relaxation, visualization, breathing, and physical preparation to prepare you for a gentle birth. After some hesitation, she showed me some Hypnobirthing videos. I was stunned at how calm these ladies were. How smooth labor can actually go, if you let your body relax and do what it already knows how to do. Even the babies seem more calm and responsive right out of the womb.

In March, when I found out I was pregnant, I knew right away I wanted to do Hynobirthing. When it came time to actually start taking a class, I Googled and found Fiona Judd who teaches Hypnobirthing in Orem. We just finished our 5 week course with her and loved it. We learned so much from her. She is very experienced and passionate about what she teaches, while being very down to earth and very understanding of everyone's situations. We left very informed about labor, things that can happen during labor, ways to relax during labor, etc and we feel very confident our labor will be a very stress free experience.

photo via

*I know labor is very different for every woman. Having a natural birth can't happen for everyone. I just hope to spread the word about this wonderful concept, and our wonderful teacher. To learn more about Hypnobirthing, go here. To learn more about Fiona and her class schedule, go here.

She likes Hypnobirthing. And so does she.

life update

photo taken by SIL at San Juan Islands

Summer is coming to a close. I have very mixed feelings about it. After summer comes fall and that's when our little boy will be here. But it also means Griffin starts school next week. And it's not going to be just another semester of school. He starts the Accounting Program at BYU (top accounting school in the nation, I might add. Oh so proud.) I have not taken enough advantage of how much time we have been able to spend together this summer. I quit my full time job (finally) and he's only been working part time so we get to wake up together, go on random bike rides, run errands together, etc. We now are poor poor married students with a baby on the way, but I think we needed this time together more than anything before he starts this intense school year and before baby comes. Our 2 year anniversary is coming up next week, which will be a perfect end to a hard but wonderful summer.