6 Month Stats

Morgan turned six months on Saturday. We had her doctor appointment yesterday to see how she's doing.

She weighs 13.11 pounds and is 24 1/4 inches long. Both weight and height are in the 10-25 percentile for her age so she is just a little thing. Her head circumference is in the 75th percentile. We know she's our kid because we both have big heads too. A lot of space is needed for our gi-normous brains, right?

She sits up really well. She can sit by herself without falling for at least a half hour.

She likes to watch Baby Signing Time. I had high hopes to not let the TV be her babysitter but sometimes I just need 20 minutes for a shower or to clean up and that is seriously the best way.


Morgan is such a mommy's girl. I take her to the gym and let her stay in daycare there for about an hour a few times a week. She seems to do pretty well but if I leave in the evening, she cries and cries, even with Tom. We have had one of the girls in our ward babysit a couple of times. I feel so bad for her (the babysitter) to have to stay with a crying baby. We pay her very well.

She sleeps in her crib now until around 2am. When she wakes up I am usually too tired to feed her and put her back in her crib so I just take her to my bed and sleep with my shirt off so she can eat when she wants. Sometimes a girl just needs her sleep.

This picture is one morning after Tom and I woke up- little girl in a big bed.

She can't quite roll over all the way. Her arm on the bottom still gets in the way. She is eating all kinds of food now. She really likes everything she's tried. I guess her favorites (or at least what I feed her the most) are bananas (real, mashed by mom), cereal and carrots. She loves being outside. The other day she let me run 6 miles while she was content in her jogging stroller.

I CAN Do It!

If you've been keeping up on my blog you would have noticed that four or five months ago I made a goal to lose the baby weight. I blogged my weight and planned on updating weekly on that feat. Well, it didn't go so well for quite a while so instead of being all Bridget Jones like and writing pretty much the same weight and what had gone wrong, I didn't write anything.

I am happy to say though that about a month ago I refocused and went to town eating clean, healthy foods and exercising regularly (which is never my problem). In one month I have dropped almost 12 pounds! I can wear all my size 8 pants now. Hip, hip, hooray! I'm not quite in the 6's, but hopefully by Thanksgiving... although I am not giving myself that deadline.

Halloween Preparations

I love Halloween! We have been getting into the spirit of things around here.

First of all, we got boo-ed. That means that someone unknown to us dropped off a plate of goodies on our doorstep with a poem and the "boo-ed" paper. We put the paper on our door and make treats for someone else. Then we deliver them to two separate people without them knowing who it was. Tom was the brains behind our boo. He made these cute little macaroon spiders. We delivered to the neighbor across the street and the ones next door. Unfortunately, the ones next door know it was us because that same night we went over to another neighbor's house to take some macaroons to welcome them to the neighborhood. A couple days later all three of us (the neighbors and I) were outside talking and the new neighbor thanked me for the coconut cookies. I could see everything click with the other neighbor, then she said, "I know who boo-ed us!"

Next, I volunteered to host the ward Relief Society birthday luncheon. With that responsibility comes the assignment of making the main dish. I decided to make a casserole in a pumpkin. It is something my mom made every year around this time so I thought it would be a festive thing to do and it turned out to be delicious. Unfortunately Morgan had a hard time that afternoon and I spent a lot of the time in her room trying to get her to calm down. I also watched as some of the women let their kids have free reign beating on our blinds. I waited for them to say something to their kids but they just talked over the noise. Hello people! Watch your kids! I kind of have the "you break it you buy it" policy at my house though and I would have enforced it but luckily I didn't have to. The R.S. president took control of that situation.

Last of all (for the moment), I am co-hosting a couples Halloween party at my house with a few other chicas. It is going to be the shizzle of parties and I'm so excited. Tom and I bought some jello molds, including eyeballs, a heart, a brain, and a torso of a mannequin! We practiced last night with the eyeballs. When Tom does something he goes all out. Check out these eyes!

We have to dress up as a couple for the party. We're thinking of being Dracula and Dracula's bride. I'll be sure to blog pics from that.

The Pumpkin Patch

We went to the Linder Farms pumpkin patch in search for our "great pumpkin." After twenty minutes of searching and taking pictures, I think we found it. We only bought one because they were about half the price at the grocery store, but we had to buy one for the experience.

We're excited to keep this tradition going. We were able to take Morgan's picture by the big pumpkin with a ruler. It looks like she's about 2 feet this year. We'll see how it is next year!

On the way there, we passed a man and his 10 year old daughter walking away from their truck. We turned around and asked if they wanted a ride. They took us up on the offer. Apparently their truck ran out of gas. The little girl told me that it wasn't the first time. Anyway, it reminded me of when Jackson was little and my dad's car ran out of gas a couple of times while Jackson was with him. He used to worry all the time. Whenever he would go with my dad he would ask in his high little voice if there was gas in the car. Ha, ha.

Nick and Carly

My brother, Nick, and sister-in-law, Carly flew to Boise to visit us a couple of weeks ago after a long summer installing security systems in California. We had such a good time. It had been almost a year since we'd seen them.

We took them to our favorite Thai restaurant in the area. I don't think it went over well with them, but I don't think they hated it either. I give them props for being willing to try it.

They came with us to our ward chili cook off. Tom was asked to be a judge beforehand and Nick was recruited after we arrived. I never realized there were so many ways to make chili. There were tons of desserts that the kids were asked to bring. We got the recipe for Tom's favorite (it wasn't everyone else's favorite, but Tom thought it was awesome) so here it is:

Hungry Man Cake

1 chocolate box cake
1 small instant chocolate pudding
½ cup sugar
¾ cup oil
¾ cup water
4 eggs
8 oz. sour cream
1 cup chocolate chips

Mix both dry mixes & sugar. Add oil & water. Beat each egg separate and add 1 at a time. Mix, add sour cream. Mix well, stir in chocolate chips. Spray Bundt cake pan. Bake 350 degrees for 45-50 min. Check with long tooth-pick. Cool then turn out onto plate.
It was cold on Sunday so we had a "burn party" with them before they had to go home. We have a bunch of papers that we've had for 3 years that either needed to be burn or shred. We bought a fire pit (even though our house came with one) and started the fire of identity theft prevention. We made S'mores too.
Nick installed a security system while he was here. It's pretty great. I really appreciate him. I feel a little more... secure. We even started putting Morgan in her own bed. Yeah, I realize she's almost six months and I maybe should have kicked her out of my room a couple of months ago but its hard for me and I don't sleep as well when she's not next to my bed.

This picture is of her in her crib the first night we left her in her own room. It only lasted until about 12 (or maybe 2am) but it was a start.

Tom's Birthday Surprise Revealed

As I mentioned in Tom's Birthday spotlight blog, I had a surprise outing for his birthday. I had him come home from work early (5:20, if that's early). We dropped off Morgan at Sarah's house for the evening and I drove to our destination.

On the way, I told Tom that I needed to exchange something at Deseret Book (which was true) but as we were almost there, I parked in front of Massage Envy so we could get a COUPLES MASSAGE! It was the first massage that I got that I paid for.

Here we are in the waiting area waiting for our 60 minute massages to begin.

We had our massages in the same room with the lights low and the music relaxing. It created quite the mood. Its almost too bad there were two other people in the room... almost.

Here is Tom just after his massage. Still relaxing and just barely awake.

Here I am.

We ate at Tucano's afterward. I can hack it once every couple of years. With all that meat, its definitely a guy's restaurant.

I made Tom a birthday cake earlier that day. It was German chocolate and took me like two hours to make. I even made the frosting! The consensus: buy your German chocolate cake at Costco -- it is way better and doesn't take near the amount of time. I also made that calender/weekly schedule thing and threw it in with the new Dan Brown book as a gift.

Sarah and Justin came over with a sleeping Brinkley after we picked up Morgan from their house. They couldn't pass up German chocolate and we're so glad they came to celebrate with us.

Lynndyl Week

We went to my parents' house for the five days following our visit with JoAnn. She got to see Grandma and Grandpa Nielson, Uncle Jackson, and Aunt Shy.






There was a Delta High football game on Wednesday night, so we went with my dad and Shyanne. That was the first day of the cold after the summer. It went from being like 90 degrees to fifty. I mostly went to see people I might know. I ran into the parents of one of my best high school friends, Kristy. It was fun to catch up with Steve and Joan. I'm pretty sure Delta won that game. Go Rabbits.

One night there was a wild windstorm. When we woke up we found that a branch had broken off of a tree and landed on the house above my parents' bedroom. Luckily it didn't do any damage. My dad cut it the rest of the way down the next morning and took it to an empty lot (which are plentiful in Lynndyl) to let it dry out and become firewood.

We went on my mom's bus run with her on Friday so I could see all the kids that she'd been talking about. One little girl on the elementary run looked at Morgan and said, "I'd sure like to hold that baby." Of course she was rolling a ball of Laffy Taffy in her hands. I told her, "well, your hands are sticky so maybe next time." To which she replied after a thoughtful pause, "I can wash them with spit."

My mom told me about a boy on the bus that is 14 years old. He looks quite a bit like Jackson. He gets on the bus and gives everyone five. One of the other boys was being a jerk and wouldn't give him five so the kid turns around and says to my mom, "I can't believe someone as cool as me is related to someone like him." Ha ha. Only a cool kid would say that.

That night we celebrated Jackson's birthday. Mom made enchiladas and I made a homemade carrot cake for Jacks. It was super good.

Of course I didn't pack any socks for Morgan so she had to borrow some of Shy's. This picture (left) shows the smallest that I could find.

When Morgan was born my dad bought a shirt that says, "My Grandpa Rides A Harley" from the Harley Davidson store in Idaho. It is a size 6 month so it mostly fits Morgan now. We took some pictures of them on his bike. Poor Morgan was so sleepy. We didn't really get a good picture with her smiling but there are some funny ones.

Also, Friday night was my sister's and dad's daddy daughter date. It was a cowboy theme so they dressed up in their "costumes" and went to the church.

They took us to the airport on Saturday (Oct. 3rd). On our way we stopped at my house in Provo. Below is a picture of the living room where there used to be a desk. In another room there was an empty spot where a LoveSac used to be. Apparently, the property management company that I hired got some pretty shady people to clean it. I guess "clean" means take everything of any value. That's good to know. A word of warning, readers. Don't do business with Total Property Management.

If anyone wants a house in Provo, I'll totally sell for a great deal. You know you want one.

Weekend with Nana and Papa

The last week in September Tom had to go to California for business and since I'm totally afraid the dark and staying alone in my big house with only my baby for comfort, Morgan and I decided to spend the week in Utah.

We spent the weekend with JoAnn and Ron. Saturday night was Ron's work party at the Rocky Mountain Raceway so we went there for dinner and the races.


A bunch of Ron's family was there. Morgan got a lot of attention during dinner. This picture is of all the teenage girls trying to get Morgan's attention.

It was both of our first time going so I wasn't sure what to expect. Thank goodness Ron was prepared with gun ear muffs for Morgan. The cars were so loud.

The rest of the weekend was spent relaxing. We caught up on each other's lives and watched some movies. We had a really good time at Nana's.

Having Friends Over

A few weeks ago we had our little friend, Brinkley, stay over for an hour or so while her mom went to the gym. She wasn't quite old enough to go to the gym's daycare (they have to be 3 months).

Morgan had a fun little play date.

Morgan shared her Bumbo chair and sat in front of Brinkley. In return, Brinkley brought her cool toy that they both laid on and played with. When they were done, they both snuggled up in their individual car seats and took a nap. It was a successful play date.

Book Club

I have been a member of a book club for a month now. The first book we read was The Poisonwood Bible about a preacher's family that moves to the Congo to teach everyone about Jesus and how to be saved. It's definitely not an uppity-up book but I recommend it.

Today was our second meeting but the first where we had a book to discuss. I got all riled up about socialism and capitalism. Hopefully everyone didn't think I'm crazy... or intolerant. Sometimes I think the hidden meaning in a book is one thing and it might be an entirely different thing. I just throw in my two cents and try to sound smart.

Happy Birthday Tom!

Today is Tom's birthday. I have a treat planned for him but can't write it yet in case he reads this. But let me tell you, it will be something that we both will be enjoying around 6pm tonight.

For his special day Tom will get a spotlight in the blog. Lucky guy!

Tom has lived all over the world, including China, Taiwan and France. He got an MBA in international business. He speaks Mandarin, as well as English.

Tom is a food aficionado so I can't say that he has a favorite meal. He is a gourmet cook and has a gift for picking out which spices are in which meals. Really, it amazes me. He (and I) misses living in Salt Lake because there are so many more restaurants to choose from. One of his favorites is Me Kong on State Street in Murray. It's a little hole-in-the-wall Thai place with the best Beef Massaman.

He is a very hard worker and wonderful provider. He is the VP of marketing at a company here in Boise and usually enjoys it very much, except when others make his work life difficult.

Tom loves football. His favorite team used to be the Green Bay Packers until Brett Farve was treated unfairly (in his opinion) and went to the Vikings. Last night he cheered for the Vikings and was pleased when they beat the Packers.

Last, but not least, Tom is the best husband and father in the world. Besides being willing and happy to cook, he will change diapers, clean house, do immaculate yard work, and he brings me and Morgan home a little surprise after every work trip he goes on. He never yells... ever. I appreciate him very much.

I love you babe! Happy birthday!