For those of you who know Nate well he...

"...had a curious way of listening; he didn't so much listen to what you were saying as subcontract to some remote region of his brain the task of deciding whether whatever you were saying was worth listening to, while his mind went off to play on its own. As a result, he never actually heard what you said to him the first time you said it. If his mental subcontractor detected a level of interest in what you had just said, it radioed a signal to the mother ship, which then wheeled around with the most intense focus. "Say that again," he'd say. And you would! Because now [Nate] was so obviously listening to you, and, as he listened so selectively, you felt flattered.*

*The Big Short by Michael Lewis

For those of you who may not know Nate as well, this won't be nearly as funny as to those of who who DO know that Nate totally does this (or you have a spouse who also does this {cough} Becki {cough}). It's taken 5 years and actually READING this quote from this book to have it not drive me crazy and instead accepting that when I ask him a question, it will usually take around 15 seconds for him to actually respond (but he ALMOST always does, so he must have a high level of interest in me!). :D

We'll be celebrating our 5 year anniversary in a few days and it just makes me laugh at how much has changed. I think we've both become much more patient with each other and the things we do that those 5 months of dating/engagement didn't show us. :) I'm excited for the next [insert bajillion-type of number here] years to laugh about the differences and enjoy our similarities some more!

Until later...

Okay, migraine's gone, but now I won't be able to blog for over a week, so I wanted to get a little update on here (mostly, I didn't want my haircut to be on the top of my blog anymore).

I'm just going to put a bunch of random pictures with very little description. :) Surprising huh?

Karly recently learned how to take off her pants. This is how she spends much of the day.

Say "Cheese!"

Hangin' out in Costco with cousins (I love this picture. They really don't usually get a long all that well, but I'm glad they were willing to long enough for a picture). :)
Stella Bella
I LOVE this boy's cheeks. :)
Circle K has 44 oz slurpees for $.79! So we all got one. This thing was HUGE!

See? Even next to an adult, these things are massive.

We went to a fun park in Scottsdale with a carousel Karly loved. Maybe I'll post the video someday of Karly saying "Whee!" However, I was on the carousel with her, so watching it might make ya'll sick. :)
Little Ladies in Red.

I definitely didn't take enough pictures of all of Karly's cousins while we were in Phoenix or enough pictures of the Pool/Birthday Party. Here is one of Karly opening presents.

Her cheese face again. :)

I'm sorry that aside from the cute pictures, this is kind of boring. I'll try to be better next time! :)

I have a migraine from you-know-where, but I can't sleep and I might as well try to do something to distract from the pain, so you lucky people get to see me update my blog! Since I have a bajillion pictures and videos (Birthday! Trip! Hair! More!), I'll start with the easiest:

My Haircut:

Before:

After:
All the hair (it seriously felt like a pound of hair):

Easter! A little early...

Nate's mom is out of town and will be for Easter, but she wanted to do an Easter Egg Hunt for Karly and Adi, so she had one this past Saturday. That woman seriously goes above and beyond - she had 60 eggs filled with candy for 2 not even 2-year-olds. So guess who will be eating most of the candy? (anyone want to come over and take some off my hands?)

Anyway, we had a ward Easter Egg Hunt that morning in which Karly didn't actually pick up any eggs because she didn't get the concept and those other kids were FAST! The whole egg hunt was over in less than a minute!

Okay, it took a lot of work, but I finally got this video to upload (thanks to my AMAZING husband who knows how to google things like this :D). This video is SO Karly and so funny.

Until the video works, here are some pictures to hold you over:

Showing off some of her spoils.

It was a beautiful day and so fun to see Karly get into the whole Easter Egg Hunt. Thanks Kippy for putting it all together (even though I secretly curse you every time I pick up a piece of candy). :D

The Gimp

Last week, Karly fell while playing on a playground set near our house. She ended up being fine except for a limp for a couple of days (doctor said she probably just pulled a muscle). As sad as it was that she was limping, it was even CUTER to watch her do it. We tried to get a couple of videos of it, but I don't feel like they do it justice. Here they are anyway.

I {heart} Colorado weather...

...most of the time.

This was one of those times.

Kippy and I took the girls on a walk around the block and they grabbed each other's hands. These pictures can't even do justice to the cuteness. These two are best buds. We can't wait for the third Musketeer to get here next month!

Harper Mae :)
Practicing fly fishing...casting...or something
This is actually a different day. On the first floor of our building, there is a woman with several cats and every time we walk past Karly looks to see if any of the cats are sitting in the windowsill. If there are, she will sit and watch them. Sometimes like this:

How cute is THIS?!?!

When Grandpa comes to play

My dad came to visit over the weekend BYU was playing March Madness in Denver. For whatever reason, we didn't actually end up going to a game, but it was so fun to have my dad come! Even with my new camera, I took hardly any pictures and almost none of Karly with my dad. I'm seriously a failure photographer.

We were actually pretty lazy while he was here and I spent almost the whole time worrying that he was bored, but I guess he mostly wanted to hang out with us and that's what he got so I guess it turned out okay! :)

One of the days we went to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. Karly slept for a good part of it and we made sure to save the part with all the animal dioramas for when she was awake.

I don't know why, but she has started smiling like this more often....
Saturday morning, we got donuts. We have, unfortunately, found a really good little donut shop not too far away. Don't ask me how many times we've gone there. It's shameful. Anyway, this was one of the times and we got raspberry filled donuts and powdered strawberry filled donuts and chocolate cake and raised donuts and a bear claw and a whole bunch of other kinds (we got a dozen...for 4 people...because it's "cheaper" to buy a dozen. No wonder I look like I do...)

Yes, that donut I'm holding is as big as it looks.
This is the only picture of Karly and grandpa. And Karly looks like Quasi Modo.

My favorite moment of my dad's being around was when I found him reading to Karly while she was getting ready for a nap. I love seeing him read to my child like he read to me. It's just too bad I didn't have any Richard Scarry books on hand... I have a video of it, but it will not upload onto here :(

These are two videos from the Museum, showing Karly's AMAZING knowledge of animal sounds. :)

Like I said, it was SO fun to have my dad around for a few days. Nothing exciting went on, just a very relaxed weekend. Love you dad!

Bed head to the max!

Somebody had a restless night...

Goals

It's 1:30 in the morning. Anyone have a good cure for...what's that word? Inability to fall asleep? Crap, my brain is tired. I really can't remember the word. Anyway, Sunday night I was up until 5:00 AM - I have no idea why, but I wasn't even tired. And now here I am, 2 nights later, unable to fall asleep again. Usually when I can't sleep one night I spend the rest of the week trying to make up for it. And instead of being productive, I've been staring at blogs. All this Karly free time! Why am I not getting something done! Oh, because my brain IS tired and so am I. I just. can't. sleep.

SO I am going to do something sort of productive and post something that is probably boring to everyone who looks at my blog. :)

Tonight at book group, all these women were talking about all these books they read and I said "When do you have time to read all these books when I barely finish one book in a month?" I really probably didn't need to ask because I already know the answer. They are reading when I am watching TV/movies. I have been in denial for awhile that I watch very much TV, but let's just list a few of the shows I watch on a regular basis:

The Bachelor

The Biggest Loser

Glee

Modern Family

The Office

Kitchen Nightmares

Shark Tank

Grey's Anatomy, occasionally

Brothers and Sisters, occasionally

Minute to Win It

Oh, did I mention I watch like 2 movies a week as well? Are you disgusted with me yet? Because I am. Granted, I don't watch all of those shows every week, but pretty much most of them. That's a LOT of time in front of the TV. A lot of time not reading to or playing with Karly. A lot of time NOT reading books. A lot of time not outside when Denver has beautiful weather. A LOT of wasted time.

So I'm making some goals for myself and I'm sharing them with you! (you are so lucky)

1. I am cutting out most of those shows and keeping only the ones that are uplifting and/or something I watch with Nate. Which basically means only The Biggest Loser, Shark Tank and Modern Family are sticking around (maybe occasionally Minute to Win It)...and I will probably watch The Bachelorette when it comes back on. Gah! Still too many! :)

2. I am going to be WAY more selective in the movies I watch. If I see a preview and think a show looks good, I'll usually get it. That has turned out pretty bad in the last 3 movies I've gotten (on that note, don't watch "The Switch" "Down with Love" or "The Invention of Lying" None of them are worth it). So I'm done with that. I'm reading reviews and going to Kids in Mind to check their cleanness. No more stupid sludge for me. Oh, and I have some weird idea that if I turn a movie off without finishing it I'll be wasting money or wasting this movie I got, so WAY too often I keep watching a movie I'm not enjoying or just plain isn't a good movie JUST because I have it. That ends now as well.

3. I am going to read more books! I have a stack of books in my bathroom closet (that's the only place for them in our apartment) that I haven't read and have been holding onto since October. I need to get through that stack and then get onto the hundreds of other books I want to read. I am not giving myself a timeline (like one book per month or something) because I think I read slower than I used to and I don't want to get frustrated- I just want to enjoy reading.

4. I have on my to-do list to create a "chart" for myself - like a kid's chore chart or good behavior chart of all the things I need/want to do in a day. I feel like I've gotten my priorities out of whack and I need them back to what they should be. And maybe I'll give myself some kind of treat when I've done really good for a few weeks. :)

So there are my goals. I would love to add a goal like "go to bed at 10:00 every night" but I apparently can't control my sleep habits, so I'll just sleep when I'm tired I guess?

Dyslexic...or whatever you'd call it

I have been thinking of/hearing more of Karly's backwards words and wanted to write them down:

1. Maggies = Jammies

2. Bats! = Snap!

3. Peets = Sleep

4. Amne (pronounced AM-nee) = Amen

5. Meno = Nemo

6. Beets = sheep

7. Oof = food

8. Oaf = Phone

I'll add to the list as I think of them (if I think of it ;).

That's better

We just got a new camera - a little one that fits in my purse (and pocket!) so I take it everywhere with me and I'm trying to be better about taking pictures. Nate seems more willing and helpful at reminding me of things we should record, so here's to more pics of us (Karly)!

So Karly's latest trick is to jump or "Bujch" as she calls it.

As a side note: can someone please explain to me why Karly says so many words almost dislexic-like? Sleep is Peets, chip is...uh...well, it sounds like another term for a female dog - I might get in trouble for typing it here. Anyway, there are several more that I can't think of at the moment, but I can't figure out why she does it, even when I say the words really slowly.

Apparently she has a thing for glasses...
This girl would eat cereal (pronounced "owealgh" - that's a gutteral sound at the end there. I tried to record it today, but she tends to shut down if she knows the camera is on - she just wants to look at pictures).
And...this is what happened when I wouldn't let her look at the pictures. Pretty pathetic, I know. :)
It's been really warm around here lately, so we've started opening the door to our deck so Karly can get some sunshine/outside time without us having to traipse down 2 flights of stairs - and I can still get stuff done while she's playing!