Kiss Kiss

Yesterday was a big day for Aspen. She got her first kiss from Albie, our neighbor and friend from church, while sitting in the courtyard. He came up to her going, "Mmmmmmm" with his lips pursed out and when she realized what he was doing she leaned in for a kiss. Later, they sat together on the porch and went for another one and I was able to catch it on camera. Classic!

She also slept in a big girl bed last night for the very first time! I'm so proud of my little girl with all these transitions. I'm hoping she will do just as great with the very huge transition coming in just two months! We can't wait for her baby sister to arrive!

Cowgirl Up!!!

Aspen has been trying on everyone's shoes lately. This was her most ambitious choice.

She has also learned the proper technique for eating spaghetti noodles.

Aspen's new looks

Aspen has been experimenting with some new looks lately. Here are two of them.

Grandma Jo might have lent some inspiration with the new look.

And now for look number two. Aspen would love some feedback on which look you like best.

Aspen's new tricks

Look what I saw today!

Yep.

You can't tell in the picture but the entire bottom half of her (?) underwear was showing. Just a regular old Monday in SLC!

I have found my form of steepandcheap

As you have all probably either noticed from our blog or observed in real-life, Billie really loves anything and everything having to do with being outside. The man is a geologist. And he loves the gear to go with it. Ever since I've known him, he's had a little obsession where he checks this website regularly to see what deals they have at that moment. Ladies and gentlemen: meet steepandcheap.com.

This isn't just a website that shows you how to find great stuff for great prices. Nope. They have a limited amount of supply and will only sell the items for a certain amount of time before the deal runs out. So the poor customer is forced to make quick decisions in a stressed state for fear of losing out on the DEAL OF THE CENTURY. This whole phenomenon of the way this site works and the amount of times Billie checks it is something I have never understood. That is until...

I'm definitely not complaining. He has found some great stuff on that site that I have personally benefited from. But I have always chuckled to myself when he gets all stressed out because the deal is about to go away in 15 seconds and he has to decide RIGHT THEN if he wants to buy it or not. More often than not, he decides not to get it, but sometimes he can't help himself. Who can blame the guy?

But, I have to admit, I've found my very own form of steepandcheap. It's called babsteals.com. I asked a woman at the WIC clinic where I've been working where she got her adorable diaper bag (side note: since when do I care about adorable diaper bags??). She told me, "baby stills dot com." It took me writing it down to understand that "stills" meant "steals" but I eventually got the picture. Gotta love Utah!!

Anyway, this site is awesome! It's a similar idea to steepandcheap but for baby stuff. And everything is 50% off or more (and so cuuute!). I haven't bought anything (yet) and probably won't really be addicted to the shopping part of it, but a little part of me just loves to check it everyday and see what's on there. I'm finally understanding Billie and his steepandcheap obsession a little better.

Muffin Top

I'd like to dedicate this one to all those muffin tops out there.

Kid History

We went to our friend's house tonight and they showed us this video. This was a new one and just cracks us up. Watch this!

Yesterday I learned...

Yesterday I learned that you can find out a lot about a person by looking through their stuff. I had the riveting assignment as an intern to take the RD (registered dietitian)'s stuff out of the moving boxes and into the office. The old RD took another job before the big move to the new central kitchen and so all his stuff was still in boxes (TONS of boxes). As I was organizing all of his "things" I found these things:

• A keychain fingernail clipper and swiss army knife combo. Practical, no?
• 5 (yes, five!) screwdrivers. It makes me wonder if he was the fix-it man around the office.
• A package of yellow plastic chain links. What?
• A calculator from at least 1983. It's literally the biggest calculator I've ever seen. Why get another one if the old one works?
• At least 600 paperclips. I can just see the scenario: he's trying to find one, doesn't see one right away underneath all the pencils and pens in his drawer, so he goes and gets another box of 100 from the supply room. Before you know it, the guy has hundreds!
• A necklace badge holder contraption. I guess he wasn't the type of guy that liked to hook the badge on his belt loop.
• 4 aprons. It seems like he didn't like to ever put those in the wash, kinda gross. 
• Tons of empty, unused plastic folders. Maybe he had some great plans for those things that no one will ever get to see happen.

Anyway, the list goes on. It was fun to get to know this person I've never met through his stuff. It makes me wonder if someone would get a good picture of who I am just by going through my stuff. 

Canning Peaches

What a great weekend adventure we had! We went up to Pocatello, ID to visit my Grandma Henry. We stopped by Brigham City on our way up and picked up a TON of peaches for canning. We've had grandma's canned peaches so many times and they are absolutely delicious so we wanted to learn the art of canning and we also wanted to have some good laughs. You always have good laughs when you spend time with grandma.

Here's the video we made of the instructions for canning and some of the hilarious things Gma did during the canning adventure. I hope you enjoy getting to know Grandma!

For those who would rather have things written out, here are the instructions for canning peaches:

• Buy as many peaches as you want. Make sure they are very ripe and freestone peaches.
• Buy jars with the lids that "pop." If you have old lids and jars, you can use old jars, but be sure to wash them out well, and go out and buy new lids so that they will seal right
• Get a pot of water to boiling temperature. Submerge a few peaches at a time in the hot water for about 2 minutes in order to peel of the skins. (I recommend dunking them in cold water after the boiling water but Grandma wouldn't let me do this. To each his own.)
• Peel peaches and but in half, remove the stone. Immediately put halved peaches in cold water with a little lemon juice squirted into the cold water.
• Put peaches in the jar (we used pint-sized jars) with the cut part facing down. You can pack about 4-5 halves in the jar on top of one another.
• Once you have peaches loaded into your jars, drain out the water and add your "simple syrup" as Gma calls it. This syrup is made with 1 part sugar, 2 parts water and is boiled until the sugar is dissolved.
• Add the syrup into the jars almost all the way to the top but not quite to the top. Screw on the lids (but not too tight because the jars might explode)
• Use a big pot to boil. Put a rag at the bottom of the pot so that the jars won't break while they boil. Only do one layer of jars. Place jars on top of the rag and fill the pot with cold water just over the tops of the jars. Place pot on high heat and cover with the lid. Once the water starts to boil, turn down heat and let it boil for 20 minutes.
• Scoop out boiling water and bring out jars. Let them cool on counter until they seal.
• If you have more jars, make sure you drain boiling water from the pot and add cold water again, just as before. 
• THAT'S ALL!! Have fun!

Got my hurrrr did

This is kind of an entertaining story.

Billie has been kindly offering his hair cutting services for about a year now. He was known on his mission for his hair cutting skills with the other guys. He thought, hey, it shouldn't be too hard to cut a girl's hair. So after saying he was willing to try (a FEW times), I finally gave in and let him take some scissors to my locks. Keep in mind, he has NEVER seen a girl's hair cut happen, so this first try was without prior experience.

You may be wondering how the heck I let a man's man like my husband do this. Here was my thought process: my hair is (WAS) super long and I only wanted him to cut off an inch and try to do some layers. He can't do much damage, right? Also, I have an uncle who is magically really good at cutting hair and I thought if anyone would be good, it would be Billie because he is Mr. Detail-oriented and conscientious.

Here is the before:

And here is the after. Ah hem, the after after. As in, the after I got it trimmed up and fixed a bit by a friend. It's shorter than I was mentally prepared for but I really like it! (Please pardon the corny windblown look. This was NOT on purpose. My sister wanted an after picture so I took one in my car right after the trim in my hot car with the AC blasting. I wasn't going for the model look, I promise!)