My Day at Work is SO SLOW....

cause I can't wait to see this FACE!

Busy, busy, busy

We've been busy, busy, busy around this place. Ruth got her top two teeth after a long, very painful and sad process. She has also been busy learning to scoot, roll to everywhere, use things to pull herself closer, and eating lots and lots and lots of different kinds of new and exciting foods...and feet. I can't believe how big she is getting and it is making me SO sad! I told Sterling that baby stages need to be MUCH longer, and he said "but not teething." I couldn't agree more. We love you Ruthie!

Musings from Babysitting

My niece, Danica, and I had a discussion about whether or not I am qualified as an adult. Apparently I did not act like an adult until I had a baby (thanks, Danica, haahaa). Upon further dances around the kitchen, Danica concluded that I STILL do not qualify as an adult. Previously, my nephew has commented that my white and black plaid vans are not shoes fit for a 'mom' to be wearing. I am starting to wonder if they planned to sabotage the rest of my young life?

I have a bachelors degree in dental hygiene. I am married. I have a baby girl. I buy our groceries. I do our laundry. I feed our baby. I make meals. I make bread. I clean the house. I get up EVERY night with our baby girl. I go to work. Are not these qualifications for adulthood?

Honestly, I don't feel it. I don't feel like an adult. Even at work, where I feel completely skillful and capable. I still just feel like some kid that has learned some stuff and has set tasks in front of me.

Sterling commented to me that he feels that way with the research project he is working on. He came up with the idea, but everything has to be marked my professors, discussed with professors, read by professors, and mentored by professors. "Sometimes, I sit back, and I can't believe that I am doing something this BIG, I never thought I would, but in the midst of it, its just what I'm doing."

Amen. If I look back on all the things I learned in college, everything I apply at work every day, I know its a big deal. When I look at my marriage to my wonderful hubby I know its a big deal. When I look at my beautiful little baby girl, I know its a big deal. There's no moment though that makes you feel like an adult, and I'm sure thats why I remember dancing around the kitchen with 'adult' sisters singing with wooden spoons to a soundtrack of princess songs. I'm sure thats how its going to be my whole life.

On that note, here's some pictures of the wonderful cake Sterling made me for turning TWENTY-THREE! Can you believe it?!?!?!?:

Yes, unfortunately I am wearing pajama pants for the picture.  

Our 'Everything' Celebration

We didn't really celebrate our anniversary the day of, although Sterling did bring me home some flowers, and we didn't really do anything for Valentines, although we did end up going to the temple for a sealing of one of Sterling's home teaching family's, and we didn't do much on my birthday, although Sterling did make me a chocolate cake....BECAUSE....we were saving all of our celebrations for President's Day, when Sterling would be off of school.

My wonderful, incredibly, amazingly generous older sister Megan said she was willing to watch Ruth ALL DAY LONG (and much longer than we thought, THANK YOU MEGAN!!!!) and so we made use of every minute we could! We spent the morning/afternoon in Park City, wandering, enjoying, buying myself two new shirts and a purse that I think will also fit a diaper so that I can not always have to carry the diaper bag around. We dreamed about the things we will buy someday. Or maybe not. But its nice to dream. Sterling found a steal of a deal in one place that was having 70% off sales with additional 20% of some items...he got a wool coat originally two hundred and something dollars for FORTY! Yeah. That ended our wonderful spending spree.

We stopped at some friends house in SLC to pump and eat a couple cookies before heading out to Tuscany's in south SLC. It was beautiful, amazing, and so deliciously divine! It helps to have a $50 gift card! I tried bread pudding for the first time, with chocolate chips and cranberries and vanilla ice cream on top! Ohhhhh, man. Yummy.

We then went straight to the Hale Center Theater for the U.S. Premier of The Mask of Zorro. I didn't really understand what that meant until I read the little show info. It's only been performed in London, and all these other cool places, and The Hale Center Theater searched for three years to find out the owner, and convince him that they were a spectacular enough theater to produce it! The owner came and watched A Tale of Two Cities (which is the show we watched last year on our anniversary, and seriously, it was as good or better than Broadway, so obviously it convinced him) and he said they could do it before it was sent to Broadway in the US!

Long story short, they had fireworks, flamenco dancers, and costumes the likes of which I am DYING to call my sister Kami about and describe in great detail! The main evil guy was outstanding, the gypsy queen stole the show and was absolutely PHENOMENAL, the dorky and pathetic guy was perfectly dorky and pathetic and hilarious, and the chorus was BREATH-TAKING!!!! Sterling and I both thought the Zorro and lead girl were fabulous, but a little lacking. We finally decided that it was because they didn't carry off the Spaniardy-accent well enough. Not quite as amazing as last years performace of A Tale of Two Cities, but it is the first week of shows and it was still worth every penny.

Sterling and I decided throughout the day that when we retire we're going to spend the summers gardening and the winters going to theaters. We'll have season tickets for everything. It was so much fun to have an entire day together and dream together for a bit. Before we came back (later than anticipated) to a crying baby, who decided to get all four top teeth at once...and wake up every hour on the hour.  Poor little one. And thats all for this year of celebrations folks!

Conglamuration

These are peaches and pears, blended up and put in ice cube trays to be frozen and then put in baggies to pull out on future occasions for Ruthie to eat. I did the pears first. It was a lot more than I had anticipated, so I cut back on the peaches. We'll see how fast she goes through them. She loves peaches and pears so thats why I started with these. I am saving about 46 cents per cube of food, which means $7.36 per full container, minus the cost of the food originally...which I can't really say because they were bought in bulk last summer. She hasn't eaten any yet, but holy cow they were easy to make and I consider it a success!

These were for my anniversary. I LOVE red roses that are little buds just like this. They are so beautiful! 

A Day In the Life of Ruthie

I couldn't decide between all of these pictures, they are all just so cute! So here ya go:

My Happy Girl

These pj's are my favorite EVER! I LOVE them! I wish she could wear them every moment of the day! The blue looks so good on her! And I just think they are so sweet!

Happy TWO years!

I can't believe how fast these two years have gone by! It seems like we were just barely getting married! They have been a fabulous two years, and I am excited for the rest of eternity! I love you Sterling! And I love the two dozen roses you brought me for two years---although, I'm pretty sure thats a tradition we won't be able to maintain forever, haahaa. I am so, so happy that I knew you were the one (remember our talk outside Wyatt's apartment? And then we realized the window was open and Wyatt told us to go home? Yeah, thats when we were talking about how perfect we were together. And it hasn't changed a bit.)

A Fine Frenzy

This picture makes me think of an album cover of A Fine Frenzy. I don't know which it is, it just circles around on my tv screen when I have pandora on my He is We channel. A lot of times I think pictures don't do justice to how red her hair is. Especially now that it is starting to fill in and thicken up. But this picture makes it look CRAZY red. I love it. 

LOVE that smile! LOVE it!

I am so glad my baby girl has chubby cheeks. It is the cutest thing in the entire universe.

Diaries of a Dental Hygienist: Part I

Dear Patients,

Sometimes do you feel confused about where you should face, how big you should open your mouth, when to close your mouth? Let me tell you, whatever you're doing, STOP! If we tug to one side, do not turn that direction. It makes cleaning your teeth SO difficult! Pulling back the cheek gives me a better view, but if you turn towards me, it closes up the view I was trying to get. You may THINK you are helping, but usually you aren't. Then I feel lame telling you to move back, when you moved to try and help me, so I crane my neck WAY over to compensate...and then I have an achy back and I get cranky. Also, opening your mouth SUPER wide makes a muscle contract that makes it REALLY difficult to get inbetween your cheek and your molars. Calm down a little, and don't CRANK your mouth open. Thank you.

And I don't want to know why you didn't brush your teeth before your appointment. I've seen worse. Think 12 year old boy with braces and oreos(which I don't really know why that is worse to me than 12mm pockets with pus and blood coming out, but those oreos were really nasty looking). And if you really wanted to, you can always get a toothbrush and paste from us and go brush them right now. What I really want you to do? Stop smoking so I don't have to smell it the entire appointment. Thank you.

That is all for today, I'm sure I'll revisit this topic again.
Yours truly,
An achy, cranky, RDH that is really tired of all her patients having wisdom teeth today

Walking to Laundry

I cannot get enough of that crooked grin. She does it all the time now. A couple nights ago we were at the grocery store, and she was doing her now-typical 'lean-back-with-one-arm-stretched-around-my-seat-king-of-the-world' position in the shopping cart. She was wearing this hat and boots, but a hot pink coat with four big buttons in the front that matched her boots. This older man walked by and she just grins up at him. He almost walked past, but stopped, turned around, tried to get her to smile and she just looked at him like "what do you want anyway?" and he says "Oh you're not spoiled are you? you're not a little princess are you? You just KNOW you're cute!" It was so funny! She can be so smug!

Ruth thought she was particularly special this day, because usually I leave her for a second in our apartment and run downstairs and into the next building of our apartment to grab our laundry. This time I bundled her up and helped her WALK the entire way. She was in heaven. 

Hey mom! This is so much fun! 

January-February Slump

This is the most beautiful baby girl in the entire world!

This is Ruth's rockin' cuz' Devaney.

These are Ruthie's pink boots that I LOVE and I ALWAYS get comments on at the store or wherever she happens to wear them.

This is just to show how beautiful my family is. Look at my man. MmmMmm.

The January-February Slump has nothing to do with that perfect little chubby face or that wonderfully handsome hubby. Or those adorable pink boots. It has to do with the gray skies that never go away lately, even if it is quite mild weather for these parts. It has to do with the cold I've developed in the space right behind my eyes. It has to do with the need to go tromping around on trails up the mountainside with our new Kelty baby backpack(a post of its own to follow). It has to do with the fact that I tried really hard to scrapbook all afternoon and after waiting three minutes for my computer to load a page, I decided it wasn't worth it, and I'd wait for Sterling's much faster computer. It has to do with the feeling that I have nothing cute to wear, even though I probably do. But nothing cute that I want to put on to get slobbered and tugged and pulled on all day. They need to make clothes that do both. And I don't really agree with the fashion world that you can be trendy and cute and comfortable. The comfortable clothes that are ACTUALLY cute are few and far between, and usually very pricey. Sigh. I usually go with comfort.

Basically, I'm whining. A full-out wintery blues whining sessions. Yes dad, I would like some cheese with my wine. Make it from Gossner's please and thank you. And if you could do something about my runny nose, it would be muchly appreciated. That is all folks. 

PS...skinny jeans? Really people? I'm not sure I can convert. Give me some time. I think its cause high school was flare jeans for me...hard to change.

A Little Bit O' Perfect

Coming home to a very happy baby because my wonderful mother took care of her all day long while I was at work. Crinkle fries and chicken nuggets in the oven...because some nights are just crinkle fry nights. A husband who comes home and asks me all about my day, and looks like the perfect daddy playing and smiling and cooing with my baby girl. And that dad is real happy about the chicken nuggets, and he doesn't even say anything about that not being a real dinner. He kisses me as he goes back to the library to fill his head up with some more biochemistry for this test he's getting stressed about, but promises to be home by eleven,  instead of midnight, just cause I asked. Getting really comfy in his pajama pants and Michigan hoodie. I'm getting attached to the idea of Michigan. Not because I really want to spend four years of my life at medical school in that freezing world, but because he likes it, and that makes me like it, a little. Baby girl waking up after she's already gone to bed. She never does that. It was nice, though. She sat on my lap and we watched tv together. And then she'd look up at me and babble away. And then she'd smile real big, like we were sharing secrets. And then I'd hug her and kiss her and hug her some more, and she'd try to eat my chin, and suck on my cheek, and all the while blow smiles and spit and sweet baby noises towards me. Her little nose and her big, big eyes, and the way her little face turned up to look at me and just laying there on my lap with her fingers wrapped around mine. And then she fell asleep in my arms, and I got to look at the most perfect little rolls of plumpness that ever was. To top it all off, he didn't even wait til eleven to get home, he came at ten. And then the night really couldn't get any more perfect.