Almost 1 more year has gone by!

Ok... I'm not promising to post super often, but at least once a year ;)

Updates on life:

+ Baby boy is not such a baby anymore. He's 2 yrs + 3 months
- He bites us when he's excited when we wrestle
- His cheeks are still so, so soft and kissable. He got all the white peach fuzz back from when he was a baby and his leg hair is blonde.
- He loved nursery with the Fabis family and is now getting used to new leaders. Bless their hearts! I'm already tired by the end of church, I can't imagine how tired they must be!
- He's talking a bunch and is now in a toddler bed. He comes to our bed at night. It's so nice not having to get up to get him!
- He understands everything in Spanish but seems to have a preference for speaking in English.


+ Spring 2018
-  In April, I started a quilt! I'm following this pattern! I've been looking at it for more than 2 years and I finally committed! Choose colors is the hardest thing because I wasn't patient enough to order the same ones in the pattern. I wanted it gender-neutral. The whole purpose of this quilt was to grieve. It sure has helped! And I've gotten super frustrated, too, when H runs all over what I lay out on the ground! I have to finish it this Fall because it got too warm to sew!
- I got the drive to launch a website for Clayton Photo + Design once and for all. It's been eating at me and it just had to get done!
- We added another lens to our gear! It's a wider, zoom lens, so now we can take better photos of our family and other families :)

+Summer & Travels
- We got to go to Rexburg, ID for baby brother + wife's graduation at BYU-I!
- We got to stay with D's family for a few days. It was so hot but we tried to stay outside doing things, like a long walk/hike by the river, walking by the lake/dock, and driving up the mountain to Lake Cleveland.
- We got to visit H's great-grandma and had a little birthday party for him and I at the park in Boise. - - We weren't sure about housing for the graduation, but ended up staying in a really pretty place near Beaver Dick on Henry's Fork.
- This trip was weird and fun.
- We finally got out West in the summer (we always go Nov/Dec when it's cold) and got some Karie Anne's gelati! So good! The last time we had it was in 2014. And of course, got our Apple-Peach Martinelli's, Broulim's New York Crunch Sushi rolls, and splurged on Jamba Juice (there's only a couple back home and they're far away :(
-OH!!! And the BEST PART of this trip was going to the Rexburg Temple to do sealings (marrying a wife and husband, and their family, for time and all eternity) on July 24, 2018, one day shy of our 6th wedding anniversary! My parents were in town long enough to watch H and it was so special. I love Rexburg and the temple and all the special memories we have there!
- I made my first naked cakes for my sister's baby shower! They turned out pretty yummy.

+ Fall 2018
- We have a baby niece! My first niece ever! She's super cute and we can't wait to meet her in person. When L came to town in the summer to visit and for her baby shower, H acted all weird and didn't want to be close to her. We think he sensed the baby!
- D & I signed up for a photography class online to improve and grow our business! It's been so nice learning together and doing more of it together. It takes us back to being in school and doing design work for our classes together!
- We also signed up for a self-reliance class that Church offers to grow our businesses. It's been great so far, but another night away from home.
- ConfettiDots on Etsy is growing :)
- M is still serving the Young Women at Church and D is still Elder's Quorum president. That keeps us both busy and H restless after Church... we've lost him twice and it was the scariest thing ever.
- M is still working from home, while H is awake :( If he does nap, it's at like 4pm.

Hello... again!

It's been another while since I've popped on here! Every time I scroll through all the posts that document everyday happenings in life and I ask myself why didn't I keep posting?

Part of it is privacy on the internet. I never know who will read it, but then I think about the possibility of uplifting someone or the record that it can be for my posterity. It's nicer to read through this blog than it is to read through a written journal with no photos. I told myself I'd print lots of photos and put them with their corresponding journal entries... but that's another project!

I'll just pick up where we are now!

+ Baby boy is 16 months and every Sunday EVERYONE in church comes up to us and asks "When is he going to nursery?" or "Does he like nursery?" H might be tall for his age, but no, he's not in nursery yet and we don't mind! We're still able to learn in our classes!

+ We just came back from visiting family in Idaho... and the highlights include:
- H falling asleep on the flight there in our arms as a lap child (this never happens!)
- almost everyone getting a stomach flu bug or food poisoning
- our family shoot in Rexburg! (not shot by a family member!)
- being able to hang out for 1 hour with my two married siblings and their spouses

+ New responsibilities
- Dad is first counselor in Elder's Quorum at church
- Mom is first counselor in Young Womens at church (still trying to figure out where I fit in)

+ Still working
- Dad got a promotion and is "unofficially titled" the art director for a large/series of projects at work
- Mom works (as fast as she can) from home while H sleeps. Naps are getting shorter!

+ New words
- "Dada" has some new meanings! Almost everything is "Dada"
- "ma MA MA" is whenever baby boy needs help with something or wants something... anything.
- Signs words like milk, more, thank you (but blows a kiss instead)
- Totally understands like EVERYTHING when I speak to him in Spanish! I am in awe that a little human can learn a language and I can't (that quickly or that well!)

I have a talent...

I recently confirmed that I have a new talent! I seem to stop posting on accounts (this blog, my Etsy business Instagram, my digital journals, etc.) almost exactly one year before I stumble upon them and post again! Is that a talent?

For catching-up sake... Here's an update!

+ We have a happy, cute baby boy with the softest, squishiest and most gorgeous cheeks you ever did see (and 3 bottom, pearly whites and a little lunar on his left big toe)

+ Baby boy army crawls for speed, pulls himself up, stands up on his own as if he's daring himself to stand up without holding anything, sings and conducts music, is silly, and isn't fond of chunky food

+ It's been almost 1 year since we brought said boy home from the hospital! (How is this possible?)

+ Mom works from home when baby boy naps (I'm learning and pushing myself and truly have seen the Lord answer my prayers when I need help since there isn't another web developer)

+ Dad works at the office and less at home nowadays

+ Mom was Primary music chorister at church up until baby boy was born

+ Mom is in the Relief Society activity committee at church & Dad is the ward's finance clerk

+ Dad has had braces for a year and we can't remember life without them

+ Turkish dramas are great! 

+ Period dramas are also great!

+ Our photo business has managed to let us shoot here and there, but sure needs some TLC

+ The CD design & photography we did for Scott Rivers's first music CD has been sold at real stores!

+ Freelance work has showed up at the right time

+ We are researching and studying trying to figure out why our cookies always come out cakey

+ Also researching for yummy frostings that don't taste like pure powdered sugar

It's Finally Spring!

We were blessed to have a mild winter this year, and instead of snow on the trees there are white, pink, and purple flowers! It's so exciting to see the Earth kind of start all over in growing all the green. It makes me want to start all over again with goals and what I will do each morning to make life more beautiful.

What's been making life more beautiful is this little babe inside of me. He is moving a little bit different now since he's getting bigger and stronger! He's a whole 'nother person in our home and it's so crazy that we haven't seen him yet... only 2 more months. Or 10 more weeks to be exact :)

For future reference, these are good things to have done by now:

• Baby carseat purchased
• Baby shower in the works + completed registries
• Picking a doctor for baby
• Scheduling a hospital tour
• Taking a birthing class (there's some free ones online)
• Having a name picked out - or several :) 
• Getting a crib or what baby will sleep on
• Body pillows for sleeping are best to start using earlier on in pregnancy!

These last few months I feel like I've majored in "How to be a mom: during and after pregnancy". There are so many things to learn about the body, your baby's body and development, figuring out and preparing for what changes will happen in life, finances, family, etc., after baby comes and daydreaming about snuggling for hours. 

We feel like we have mostly everything down because we've talked about our expectations with each other or asked how we would react if baby didn't sleep all night or misbehaved... haha but sometimes it feels like seasoned parents are trying to scare us with things like, "Sleep now since you won't sleep later" or "Travel the world before you have kids", etc. But the thing is that there's two of us. We can take turns and work like a team. And the travel thing - we are sure there's more things to do when you have kids and more memories instead of just selfies of us now. We know the world is not going to end when our kiddies are here!

Anyways - enough of a rant. Hopefully you are all enjoying the beauty that is spring!