Way too long...

Everyday for the last 2 weeks, I've been planning to blog. I'm writing this on May 10th - let's see if I actually post it today. :)

So, since I last posted:

*Nate graduated from BYU's Marriott School of Management with a Bachelor's and Masters of Accountancy.

Please ignore the fact that I look pregnant in this dress. I'm not.

Nate and one of his good friend Shawn Hansen.

Kippy, Nate and Dan Frakes

My dad came too - thanks for coming dad! We missed you mom!

*Karly lost 4 pounds (that might be an exaggeration) from being sick the week and day of graduation.

*I did too many loads of puke laundry.

* Packed our apartment and sold nearly all of our furniture (over about 4 weeks).

*Packed our stuff into a moving truck and drove the 7 hours from Provo to Denver, Colorado.

For those who don't know, Nate's parent's are graciously letting us live in their house for a while, as well as Nate's older brother, wife and baby. Since we moved here two weeks ago, we have helped Nate's parents unpack their new house (while being frustrated with how long the basement was taking to be finished - it's finally done!) and moved half of our possessions into the house and half into a storage shed.

We are exploring Denver now that we're here and have found some good hiking spots, walked around downtown, checked out the mall nearby and researched some fun things to do (ahem....this is not an advertisement to come to Denver and visit us or anything...yes it is)

Family Pictures - professionally done!

My very talented and very sweet friend Kaela took some family pictures a few weeks ago. They are terrific. I don't think I look so great, but that's not the photographer's fault... :) Anyway, here are a few of my favorites.

Love. This. One.

A couple showing our hawtness as a couple.

And of course, the sweet baby. There are about 10 bajillion of her.
Have I ever said how much I love this face? Where she clenches her jaw. I love this face.

Thanks Kaela!

T-1 Month!

Karly is going to be a one year old in less than a month. No longer a baby - a toddler. Crazy.

This girl is crazy (I tell her everyday).

I told her to give hugs and this is what I got:

Could that be any cuter?!? I love her little hands clasped.

And of course...

She had to go for the camera.

So.

I have no idea how much she weighs or how tall she is. She's getting heavy, but still petite and tall-ish. She's growing out of old clothes quickly. How's that?

She is SUCH a little parrot. She copies everything I say as well as she can. She's really good at the K sound, as well as D and is picking up F pretty quickly. The S sound sounds sort of like SH and she refuses to say anything with an M because its too close to Mama. Little stinker.

Words: dada, kak (milk), crak (craker), ung (hungry), ah dah (all done), gog (dog), oof (food), uh uh (ruff ruff), ba (bath)

No only does she copy sounds, but she copies movements. She rubs lotion onto her hands when I do. She motions at me when I say "come here" as if to say "No, you come here." The second Nate puts his jacket on in the morning, she starts waving bye bye. She waved hello at a perfect stranger at Costco today. He loved it.

She absolutely refuses to walk or stand on her own. Let's be honest. She's a little chicken. I know she can do it. When I try to get her to stand by herself, she carefully (and with obvious control) lowers herself to the floor.

She laughs like crazy! Everything is funny lately. I pretended to gag while she was eating dinner the other night and she was laughing so hard, she almost couldn't breathe.

She LOVES her daddy. The second she hears his key in the door, her head WHIPS that direction and she says "Dada!" (by the way, she also says dada when I come home. awesome).

She hates her carseat. I can't wait until she can get a front facing one.

Anyway, that's my update. Sure love that girl (do I say that every time?)

Letters

Dear Provo/Mother Nature/Snow:

I sort of hate you right now. It's April, so there should be April Showers, not April snowshowers. Stop. It. Now.

Dear Karly:

You are awesome. I'm sorry you have a fever and I hope it's just from teething. You don't act sick, so I'm guessing so. I love that you're my little parrot and copy everything I say (except Mama). I'm glad you finally pooped so you don't keep crying because you can't get it out. I love you!

Dear Raisins and prunes:

Thank you for helping Karly poop.

Dear Cube Steak:

I really didn't know what you were. I really thought you were a cube of steak. You don't make very good French Dip.

Dear Adam Lambert and Lady Gaga:

Boy, you have catchy songs. Whataya want from me? and Paparazzi have been stuck in my head for 2 days. Too bad you're both such weirdos.

I am not posting a picture of Lady Gaga. I don't think there are any of her fully clothed and not looking like a freak show. Plus, I'm a little scared to google search that...

Dear Moab:

Oh, how I miss you.

Dear Nate:

16 days until school will begin to be a distant memory for you. I can't wait until you come home at night and can just hang out with us. I'm super proud of you for finally graduating from something! :) I love you!

Dear Me:

Please stop staying up all night. Learn to fall asleep before 2 already. And definitely don't stay up until 4 anymore. Thanks.

Love,

Alisa

Who Do You Think You Are?

Have you seen this show? It's on NBC, but also on Hulu (that's where I watch it).

It's amazing. It makes me want to do more Genealogy. If you decide to watch it, especially make sure you watch the one about Lisa Kudrow. So touching.

Diez Meses!

Karly is 10 months old. I always hear people say "time has gone by so fast - I can't believe how big he/she is!" Well, Karly is ridiculously petite and I don't feel like it's gone by all that fast. It feels like she's been around for about 10 months. :D

She is a smart girl! Actually, she might be totally average, but I think she's really smart. I love how quickly she catches on to things like "So Big."

Lately she:

-Fake sneezes and coughs. It's hilarious and I'll try to get a video sometime.

-Says "yucky." It's not that clear, but if I say something is yucky (which is apparently quite often), she crinkles her nose and does a sort of guttural sound that resembles the word yucky.

-Copies many sounds I make, including animal noises. She can do an elephant, duck, dog, cat (well, sort of mouths it, actually) and just laughs at me when I do a pig noise.

-Is SO determined. If she wants something she does everything she can to get it, including throwing tantrums and arching her back to get away. I hate it. :)

-Refuses to nurse anymore, so she's only bottle fed now. Lately, she hasn't been eating very well either, so we go through about 7 bottles a day.

-Has 5 teeth! She just got her 5th in yesterday, so it's been a rough few days (I think that's why she hasn't been eating well)

-Fake cries brilliantly and all to often.

-Waves hello and bye bye.

-Took her first step today! She was just trying to reach for me and took a step to get closer. It was awesome. :)

And now the beloved Monkey picture:

This is the only decent one I got because she kept doing this:

She thought it was SO funny to push the monkey over. Bully.

We also went for a walk to day and took some cute pictures.

I hope you can see it okay in collage form. I didn't want to post all those pictures. :)

Cooking injuries in the last week and a half:

1. burned the top of my hand on the oven element

2. sliced my finger with a santuko knife (twice I think...)

3. stabbed my palm with a knife

4. burned my thumb on the oven shelf

5. peeled my finger with a vegetable peeler

6. steamed my hand while taking a lid of a boiling pot

7. Not a cooking injury, but bit my tongue and lip - both bled.

Granted, most of them were not awful injuries, but I'm beginning to think I should stop cooking altogether before I lose an appendage or bleed to death.

The Time Traveler's Wife

Weirdest. Movie. Ever.

If you haven't seen it, don't bother. I can tell you all the awful, boring, ridiculous details.

If you have and happened to like it...why?

If you know me very well, you know there are few movies I would say were awful and a waste of my time. Benjamin Button and this are probably on the top of my list.

So if you still decide to watch it, don't say I didn't warn you.

Climbing

Remember that video of her climbing on the box? We were constantly worried she was going to fall, so we put the sewing machine (it was right next to the box) on top of it.

Oh, that didn't stop little Miss Climber.

Why don't you scoot the sewing machine to the edge of the box? you ask. We do. She pushes it back.

She is determined.

Poncho!

Or Little Red Riding Hood.

You decide

This is her new favorite face. She does it at least 20 times a day.
And this is her new smile. I think she looks like a Cox in this picture.

This is for my mom

Even though I'm SO sick of snow, I have to admit this is pretty.

This is what happens...

When you pull a chair down on yourself.

(I was standing 2 feet away, in case you're thinking I've neglected her. Gravity is faster than me.)

That's my girl!

Bowl of veggies before I give them to Karly:

After:

Notice something missing?

What this EVER a good idea?

If this was really a style, I'm glad I wasn't a teenager when Pretty in Pink came out.

Yikes.

Also, this is really weird, but every time I watch a movie or TV show where they make or eat eggs, it makes me want some SO bad.

The end.

Things I do to stay awake in the morning:

(Obviously to prevent any self-medicating on Karly's part...)

1. check blogs

2. dance with Karly to songs like "Down" by Jay Sean (Karly sings and dances along, which TOTALLY wakes me up) (don't mock me for liking/listening to this song)

3. watch the Toyota Sienna Family videos. SO funny. See here.

4. watch Gilmore Girls

5. do the dishes...sometimes...

Any other ideas?

Question for other moms (or people who know):

I feed Karly frozen veggies and canned fruits from time to time (they're good because she can feed herself and she doesn't seem to like to let me feed her anymore). They seem to...uh...go right through her, if you know what I mean. Does she get any nutrients from them when they don't even seem to be digested all the way?

Just curious.

Sorry if that's awkward. :)

Too much driving! But definitely worth it.

Karly and I have spent over 16 hours in the car in the last week.

She hated her car seat before. Now it's just a torture tool. Poor girl.

Nate was really busy with school last week, so Karly and I spent Monday-Thursday morning with my cousins in Altamont, UT (ever heard of it?). It was great to spend time with them - it's been way too long. I forgot how funny Alta is and how sarcastic Nelson is. :) Nancy was so good with Karly (makes sense, since she had 6 of her own!).

I didn't take many pictures - surprise surprise - but here are some that I got:

Totally random picture I took while driving (I was really careful). Pretty huh?

We went to work with Nancy one of the days, so we're just hanging out in her office...

keeping ourselves entertained.

This is mostly for my parents and siblings. This is the house we lived in until I was 10. The house used to be a darker green with a bright red door. It was awesome. It looks so much smaller...

And here's the back yard. They tore out the raspberry patch. :( They don't know what they're missing. (and the yard looks bigger than I remember - maybe it's because there used to be a garden taking up about half that yard).

Ane and Alta are in a play (with a bunch of high schoolers - they LOVE it. Heh heh.). Oklahoma! to be exact. Karly and I went to their practice a couple of nights and had fun watching them dance and just being with them
As you can see. :) (Thanks Shan for the cute jammies!)

(This is a random in between picture...)
Heil Hitler! (can I say that on here? It's just a joke) She has started raising her hand like this all the time. Sometimes like she's waiving, sometimes when she wants to be picked up, sometimes when she's trying to give you something and sometimes when she wants something. So pretty much all the time.

ANYWAY, on to our other trip. Nate decided really last minute that we should drive to Denver to help his parents unpack their new house. So Friday, we drove the 7 hours to surprise his parents. We set Karly on the porch, rang the doorbell and hid. It was pretty cute.

We spent a good part of Saturday unpacking and organizing, but that doesn't mean we didn't have time for fun! With Karly at the center of it all.

She loved this rocking horse. At first she rocked a little, but then decided it was much for fun to do tricks (she also stood on it and lifted one leg, like a rodeo girl!).
I think this was at 10 or 10:30, after she threw up all over me (and Kippy's couch and pillow - sorry about that!). She was pretty tired. But so cute!

She had a love/hate relationship with Jake the dog (hah - that could be The Bachelor too, huh?) She would crawl toward him, but keep her distance and just kind of yell and put her hands up to us like she wanted us to pick her up. In the above video is how she reacted when she got too close (this is also how she reacts to the vacuum, by the way)

Just look at her toes...

Anyway, it was a fun, albeit SHORT trip. It was fun to see their house (we'll be living there for a little while when we move to Denver) and can't wait to be there for good!

Karly Stats and Pics

At 9 months, Karly is:

16 lbs, 6 oz (10%)

27 3/4 in (56%)

17.4 in. head (56%)

So, she's skinny. And she's anemic. Is anyone in my family surprised by that? (we're pretty much all anemic - thanks mom! :) ). Otherwise, she's a healthy and happy baby.

Oh, I have to brag for a sec (I'm a mom so I get to do that, right?). At her dr. appt., when the doctor was checking her, she didn't get upset. She just kind of looked at him and only kind of whined when he put the stethoscope on her chest. He was pretty surprised at how calm she was and said most babies just cry the whole time because of stranger anxiety. She really doesn't have that (is that good or bad?).

And since you probably don't care about all that, here are the pictures:

She's a little climber. Wonderful.

She also sometimes pushes her laundry basket around and walks with it (like a walker). She figured out she could push it up to the TV stand and climb on it, as well as the table and be able to see over the top.

She's not allowed to play with her laundry basket anymore.

(I'm not going to apologize for my baby talk voice. It's sound stupid, but who doesn't talk like that to babies?)

She picked up on this game pretty fast and does it all the time now.

She claps every time Nate walks in the door after work. It's hilarious.

Do you ever...

have one of those nights, right before you go grocery shopping that your house is practically devoid of food?

I did.

I had ingredients for several different things, but there was always a crucial element missing: tomato sauce, bread, etc.

So, I got on the wonderful allrecipes.com and went to the ingredient search. All I put in was "ground beef."

This is what came out of that:

Yeah, I know what it looks like. You don't have to tell me. And yes, that is hashed browns underneath. No pasta.

It actually didn't taste as bad as it looks. A little salty, actually. Nate ate almost all of it, though I can tell how much (or little) he likes something based on how much he drinks while eating.

We did have an interesting conversation though:

Nate: (picking up the place) This is heavy.

Alisa: (no response. I just laughed.)

A few bites in

Alisa: How is it?

Nate: It's not the worst thing you've ever made, but I wouldn't request it again.

I love it. He's so tactful.

Well, I'm off to get a Tums.