Baby Names!

Last night I was cleaning up my room and I decided that I want to start journaling more like I used to when I was a teenager, so I dug up one of the very first little notebooks I ever started scribbling in. I used this little notepad when I was a teenager in German school and also when I was in college. I would jot down to-do lists, homework assignments, lyrics from songs I liked and I even wrote my own little poems and lyrics too.

Anyway, it was fun to flip through this little thing because it had my original list of baby names that I liked. When I was like 15 or 16, I carefully read through the entire baby name book that my parents had and wrote down all the girl names and boy names that I liked! I don't know why it was so entertaining to me at that age, but it was! When I read over the list last night, I cringed at some of the names I used to like!! But overall, I was surprised with how many of them I still like. And get this: we have even used one of the boy names on my list!! How cute to think that my 15 year old self actually included the name that I would name my son almost 10 years later. :)

girls:

Annelise

Amber

Ariel

Chantale

Chloe

Christine

Kora (I still LOVE this name but Steve doesn't :( If I could use it though, I'd write it with a "c")

Danielle

Diane

Eden

Hazel

Aveline

Kirstine

Marielle

Meriel

Michelle

Michaela

Natalie (Whenever we have a girl, we've already decided we're going to name her Natalie Marie :)

Noel

Noelle

Opal (really?!)

Sadie

Violet

Vivian

Vivienne

Marion

boys:

Bentley

Caleb

Cedric

Charles :/

Connor

Daniel

Ethan

Florian (I realize this sounds super feminine in English, but it doesn't in German.)

Gabriel

Heath

Isaac

Jeremiah (I would nickname him "Jem" like in "To Kill a Mockingbird" Steve would never let me ;)

Joel (I still LOVE this name too, but we already have a Cole. Cole and Joel together is just wrong.

Jonah

Julian

Keith

Leon

Lucas

Martin

Merrill

Micah

Morgan

Nicholas!!!!!!!

Paul (I still like this name. I don't know why.)

Phillip

Raphael (this has a nice sound to it but now it just seems too "Greek God" to me)

Robert

Scott

Seth

Simon

Ives (I don't know what I was thinking.)

What do you think of my list?

morning routine

My morning routine is ridiculous. And I'm not even a morning person! 

Steve goes to school at around 6:45 am; normally Cole wakes up when he hears Steve get in the shower. Once Steve leaves, I put Cole back to bed because I know he's got to still be tired that early in the morning.

And he is because he sleeps for about another hour and then wakes me up at 8 am.

I get up and lay on the couch for a good half hour while I try to wake up and Cole plays in the living room.

Sometimes it takes me even longer to wake up. No matter when I go to bed at night, I am ALWAYS tired in the morning. It's so frustrating. So I made a resolution to eat a healthy breakfast every morning to wake me up.

I drink a big glass of water before I eat anything. Then I make myself a spinach smoothie which includes half a frozen banana, a handful of frozen berries, spinach leaves, almond milk and then 1/2 a teaspoon on chia seeds. Sometimes my smoothies turn out green and sometimes they don't depending on how many berries I add in there.

After I drink my smoothie, and give Cole some too, then I make myself almond butter toast with honey (organic bread and organic honey by the way).

By the time I've finished drinking my smoothie and eating my toast, an hour has gone by and I've gotten nothing done except eat a healthy breakfast. And to top it all off, I don't even feel less tired in the mornings!

So, what's the solution? I need to work out more? Go to bed earlier?

I feel like people who are morning people have an advantage in the world because keeping yourself awake at nights when you're already up can't be nearly as hard as being woken up in the morning from a deep sleep. Right?!

Anyway, thank goodness for days like today when I don't have to be anywhere at any time and I can take as long as I want to eat breakfast. (I just finished my toast and it's almost 12) Thank goodness we don't have church until 1 pm on Sundays because whenever it gets switched back to 8:30 am I'm pretty sure my "morning routine" will go out the window. Because there's no way I'd get up an extra hour early to eat a healthy breakfast. Like I said, I am not a morning person! But I wish I were!

splash!

Yesterday we didn't have any plans and so we went out to the pool as a little family, put Cole's little floaties on and swam around. We had some snacks; Cole liked sharing some of his cheddar bunnies with his dad ;) And the almond, pistachio, pomeganate and black pepper snack is the best ever. (You can get it at Costco)

Being at the pool is fun and stressful for me all at the same time, because who am I kidding, those floaties will not keep your kid from drowning! I think he wishes he could swim because he's always trying to squirm out of my arms when holding him in the pool. It gives me a heart attack. I think I need youtube to teach me how to teach a baby to swim and I'll feel much much better about pool time :)

The only way I can take pictures at the pool is when Steve comes along too. Which makes me so glad that Gram Yvonne got Cole a kiddie pool while she was here!!! Thank you!! He loves it so much and I can take as many pictures as I want when he's in the kiddie pool and not worry about him drowning! We can just play in the kiddie pool this summer when I'm not adventurous enough to make a trip to the real pool! And by "not adventurous enough" I mean when I'm not feeling like shaving and putting a bathing suit on and worrying about him drowning. Besides, he could spend all day every day in it. And he already figured out how to tip it over. haha, great. The dirt, or should I say mud, by our porch is going to get a lot of water this summer :)

shake it

I mentioned on the sisters blog that Steve got me WEN for Mother's Day and I'm absolutely in love with it :)

For someone who has unmanageable hair like me, it really is a miracle that I can get out of the shower after using WEN, add a little bit of WEN gel and my hair will dry like a normal person as opposed to turning into a frizzy puff ball. A miracle. The polaroids above (where the title comes in) are me trying to take some self portraits and show off my hair :) Also, I finally painted my finger and toe nails. I painted them orange and I'm going to ignore the fact that it's already chipping and instead admire how nicely orange nails look when you're wearing an all blue outfit :) Happy summer to me!

And Happy Memorial Day weekend to you!

We have absolutely zero plans! :)

When grandma and grandpa came to visit

We all had a blast when they were here last week! 

Cole got to show them where he feeds the ducks and turtles (although Cole preferred to eat the bread himself rather than throw it to the turtles hehe)

 He got to show them his favorite spot in the library (kids section) and how he likes to tip over every chair! Seriously.

 I think he melted his grandparents' hearts by reaching up so that he could hold their hands (awww).

We also got to go to one of Cole's little friend's 1st birthday pool party! That was super fun. Cole had a blast in the water :)

We also we out to dinner twice! We totally got spoiled :) 

And then we also took family pictures!!

It's always a treat when Gram Yvonne and Grandpa Brent come to town! Thank you for all you did for us!

A silly conversation

This video is LONG and it will probably only be entertaining if you're Cole's grandparents or you're an aunt or uncle. Steve parents are in town and Cole has been having a blast with his grandparents! He was being oh so silly with Gram Yvonne the other day :)

I just want to quickly say...

I hope it's a perfect day for a perfect mom like you!

You only deserve the best! :)

I love you!

happy

I remember asking my mom when I was young, maybe 12 years old, why did she have us kids? Why did she want so many kids? I sincerely wanted to know why. And she simply responded: "Because having children makes us happy."

Growing up, I always thought about that. "Having children makes you happy." Sometimes I would think that having children was just so much work. Pregnancy was hard. Child labor hurt. Babies are demanding. Kids talk back. But no, I would tell myself, having children makes you happy.

I always knew I wanted to have children as long as I can remember. I was never ambitious enough to have a dream career or whatever and I always looked forward to my future family. But I don't think I really understood what my mom meant by saying that children make you happy until I had my own little baby.

The minute I held Cole in my arms I was completely in love. I was absolutely obsessed with him. Every little thing he did was the most adorable thing I had ever seen. I just kept saying "He is so cute. He is SO cute." I loved the way he immediately knew how to suck. I loved his hair, his little nose, his big hands and feet. Obsessed. I was so happy. So happy to be his mama.

He's going on a year and a half now and I think I'm starting to understand what my mom meant.  Pregnancy IS hard. Child labor DOES hurt. Babies ARE demanding. And I have yet to experience a talking-back baby, but Cole sure does know how to throw tantrums ;) And yet, I feel like I'm happier than I have ever been in my entire life. I love watching Cole grow, learn new things, play, enjoy life. I love him so much.

There is something so completely satisfying in knowing that the little person you created and welcomed into the world is happy and thriving. So, as I'm in the early stages of motherhood, I'm starting to understand how having children makes you happy. Because I am very very happy to be the mother to one sweet little boy :)
Thanks to my mom for teaching me this :)

ps, Happy Mother's Day to my mom!

rainy morning

This morning was a rainy one. Cole and I stayed indoors while Steve was at school. 

Somehow Cole found the mini hymn book that I'd forgotten under the bed. When I was cleaning up the house, I suddenly heard him singing to himself. I found him huddled by the window flipping through the pages  of the hymn book singing. If you watch the little video you'll see what I mean!

I guess going to church and singing in Sacrament meeting is rubbing off on him more than I thought! :)

since we've been back...

feeding a family of ducks // Steve-o <3

making a mess of his room // sparkling clean ring!

played badminton with the cub scouts on Wed // We finally bought a big kid car seat for Cole!

love my $3 teal skinnies from Savers :) // having a blast with dad on the swing!

feeding the turtles // There were LOTS of turtles!

shot from the place last week // my new favorite skirt I wore to church today :)

We've been back for a week now and it's been really nice! Steve had this entire past week off too and so we had a lot of time to do whatever we want!! 

Steve wins best husband/daddy award this week. He let me sleep in several times this week and got up with Cole. He bathed Cole, fed him breakfast and even cleaned up the house, vacuuming and everything! I felt spoiled when I woke up at 10 am and everything was in order :)

In his free time this week, Steve took an ENTIRE online excel class in like 2 days! It was fun to see how much he loved learning about excel haha. While he did that, I was editing lots and lots and lots of pictures :) I just posted Emma's family pictures and I love how they turned out :)

and a few more....

1. waking up in the morning. Cole didn't let us sleep in once!

2&3. cute cousins sharing yogurt raisins

4. finally a picture of Cole and Grandma Lisa together :)

5. catching up with LaDawn & Steve, the newlyweds!

6. smiling up at Aunt Lissie :)

7&8. brunch with Deborah and her fiance Andres :)

9. at City Creek with my little munchkin

10. snuggling with Aunt Emma

11. at the park with our friends Isdanish and Andrew

12. going for a ride in the stroller :)

I feel bad, but I'm sorry I didn't get a picture of Cole and Aunt Marie together :(

We also didn't get any with Brandon and Mandy :/ You'd think with all the pictures I took I would have gotten every picture I could have ever wanted!!