Tea, Tea, Tea for Two

One pretty teapot ready for some tea.

Two little cups, one for you and me.

Three tasty treats, just enough to share.

Shaped like a circle, triangle and square!

This little girl is just getting to be too much fun! I never wanted her to get bigger, I loved her as a tiny little newborn. But this age is SO MUCH more fun than the newborn stage. She sits up, she plays with toys, she smiles constantly.

I love her.

Even if I do get the stupidest songs stuck in my head all day long.

Father's Day

We didn't do anything too out of the ordinary on this day. Nora gave her Daddy a few small presents, we went to church, and went to Darin's parents like we do on most Sundays. But this day was special. The first Father's Day that Darin got to celebrate as a Dad.

I'm sure when I got pregnant he had no idea how much he was going to love this little girl. And I had no idea what an amazing Father he was going to be. He loves her more than words can explain at times.

And how did I get so incredibly lucky to marry such an amazing man? I mean, I knew when I married him that I had really lucked out, but he just gets better and better as the years pass.

Some days I just kick myself, for not being the wife I sometimes wish I was. For not showing him exactly how much I love and adore him every day.

If there's one thing I learned growing up, it was not to judge people. To look for the best in everybody, even the strangers we don't know. Sometimes, I get on Darins case for this. I wish he could learn to love his neighbor a little more.

Bur recently I had a conversation with a dear friend. We talked about how it's so easy to be accepting of others, even people we've never met in our lives, but somehow find it incredibly easy to criticize and tear apart those that mean the most to us.

Does Darin sometimes do things that bother me? Of course. Do I bug him on occasion? I'm sure. But I try each and every day to not let silly things anger me so quickly. Because he's my husband, my eternal partner, my best friend, and I think that it's worth the extra effort.

Thank you, Darin, for being all I ever dreamed of. For loving me and Nora so fully. For supporting us. And for being so incredibly good lucking. I love you, I love you, I love you!

June - Picture Overload

Wow, where has June gone? I can't believe the 4th of July is only a few weeks away. I remember thinking when I first had Nora that she was going to be such a big girl by the time the 4th of July rolled around. I wasn't kidding. We've had a fun month. Here's a recap.

We had a baby shower for my sister. She's getting ready to pop any day now. I'm so excited that Nora is going to have a girl cousin that's so close in age to her. I know her and Olivia are going to be bestest buds.

I went to an A-M-A-Z-I-N-G mentorship session with one of my favorite photographers. I learned so, so, so much from her and it was worth every penny. I'm loving where my photography is taking me. Over the years I would have conversations with people about just wanting to do something that I really loved. I know people go their whole lives not finding that thing, but I found it. I can't explain how happy it makes me to capture these moments in people's lives that they want to cherish forever. It's an amazing feeling. Getting all my business licenses and tax stuff was a total pain in the butt but I just about have all of that taken care of.

Darin had a business trip to Seattle. I swear this guy is just going to travel the world without me. It's depressing.

He had a good time though and while he was away I went and visited my bestie, Heidi,  in Logan. These were the only pictures I took the whole time but honestly these girls are the cutest things around anyway.

We really didn't do much but it was so nice to be able to just relax and watch somebody else fold their laundry and know that I didn't have to fold my own.

In an effort to get Olivia to come out of my sisters belly we walked around the zoo for a few hours.

It was Nora's first trip and I think she really enjoyed it.

She looked at a few of the animals but mostly just watched all the people around us. She just loves being outside.

Oh, and did everyone know Ostrichs' legs bent this way? Creepy.

We've also had friends over to play. This is one of Nora's many boyfriends, Boston. He's just two days younger than her. They love playing together. It's been fun to have friends that have a baby the exact same age as ours so that we can compare milestones.

More posts to come, but I think this is enough for now!

Camping with the fam...

Finally getting around to posting pictures from Memorial Day. We went camping down at Goblin Valley and had a lot of fun. Camping is very different with a baby, but a whole other kind of fun.

Funny story from the trip:

We got a new car a couple months ago and I'm still trying to get used to the alarm on it. I'm constantly pressing the panic button on accident. It's all sorts of fun and scares the bageezees out of me every time.

So one of the mornings I get Nora and I get up. It's pretty early still, most everyone in our camp is awake but still laying in bed. There's a camp not too far away that's pretty quiet still too. I wasn't sure where Darin was because he got out of bed before me. I went to get Diesel out of the car (that's where we had him sleep) and COMPLETELY forgot about the car alarm once again.

It starts blaring and I'm running around with Nora frantically not sure what to do because Darin has the keys and I've no idea where he is.

All of the sudden I see Darin running down the mountain holding up his pants with one hand and the remote in the other trying to get the thing to shut off. He had most his parts covered but his little behind was shining in the morning sun and it's lucky everyone was still in bed.

How's that for a wake up call?

Nora was a trooper and was even able to manage the 8 mile hike that we did. I, on the other hand, wanted to die for a week straight afterwards.

It was great getting out of the house and into the great outdoors!