Well we have been back from Utah for about a week now. I love Utah but I also love Virginia. I just wish they weren’t across the country from each other!! I learned on this trip just how much I LOVE Grandparents! They are so wonderful. It was great to have a babysitter who was eager to watch Hallie and even change her diapers. My poor Mom even got peed on and didn’t bat an eye. (Love ya Momma!)  Ahh Grandparents- life is better when they are around!!

We were only in Utah for 5 days and they were JAM packed. Friday we spent the day out at Utah Lake waterskiing. It was PERFECT!! I had the best ski of my life and boy did it feel great!! I wish we could go more often. Water skiing is something I really really enjoy.

Is it bad that I love this picture? Hallie’s face kills me! Hallie absolutely HATED the lifejacket. Go figure- she hates anything that restrains her!

Still not a happy camper.

Life jacket off + food + Grandma = Happy Hallie!!!!!

Hallie snuggled right up to Grandma which was crazy because she’s not really a snuggler. She’s always too busy to hold still. Grandma’s are the best!!

Tyler, Ben’s brother, on the wake board. The pic’s of me and Ben are on my mom’s camera.

We (our little fam and my parents) RUSHED home from waterskiing, showered and then did our makeup in car so we could be on time to get our pictures taken. (We didn’t want to leave the lake.) They turned out wonderful and I am spending way too much money ordering them all. lol You can take a peek at britneybphotography.blogspot.com

That night we drove up to Idaho for Ben’s family reunion the next day. It was so fun to see all of the family. I LOVE Ben’s family and had a blast visiting with them.

Ben was born on a farm and feels at home in Idaho. Maybe some day….

Grandma and Grandpa Stoker. They have 45 grandchildren and 44 great grandchildren.

Hallie and 2nd cousin Jaida (Hal’s tan twin-lol) playing the piano. Hal LOVES playing the piano!!!

Ben comes from a HUGE family and this last year there were 10 babies born. WOW! Needless to say Hallie loved playing with all them and made lots of new friends.

Sunday we went and saw Ben’s other set of Grandparents who also live in the same town. They are a crack up and I love how relaxed their house is.

Monday was filled with Birthday party preparations. We were so BUSY!  That night we had a wonderful 1st Birthday party for Hal. Lots of friends and family came and it was so great to see everyone. I wish we could have stayed out all night talking and catching up. Thanks so much everyone for coming. It was great!!!! (Thanks Mom for throwing such a FABULOUS party!)

Hal starting to eat her cake. A little unsure…

Doing a little better….

And BAM it’s gone!! She ate the whole thing!

Emily, Tiff, and Me  (old roommates)

Me, Marci, Baby Kyler, and Lena (High school friends)

Ben’s family. Minus Brogan and Alix

Hallie sharing some of her cake with my mom.

Hallie’s two GOOD LOOKING grandpa’s. Ben’s dad and my dad.

My cousin Jessie and her cute family- Aaron and Brooklynn (a.k.a Brookie) Brookie is only a couple months older than Hallie.

Going for a ride on the Motorcycle!  Hal loved it. She clapped her hands almost the entire ride. (Just around the block)

Does it look familiar?

Maybe this will help…

Yes, that is me in my wedding dress. That is how we left our reception. Pretty sweet if you ask me! We love Motorcycles! I fell in love with Ben because he had a motorcycle and he fell in love with me because I had a boat. lol

On the way home the airline needed two people to change flights because they booked the flight too full. We decided it would be worth the extra hours because they reimbursed us very well. (Now we can go to my Best Friend’s wedding in Washington State next May. YAY!!! Tiff the three of us are coming!!!!)

Anyway this picture is of us in St. Louis. Because we had a FOUR hour lay over we decided to get on the metro and go see the famous arch. It was a fun little rushed adventure. (It was far away and we couldn’t miss our plane.)

Ahh I love Utah!! And I love our family and friends that live there. I wish we could go more often.

Anyone want to come visit us?

My little baby is ONE year old today!! Where did the past year go?! I could never have comprehended the love that I have for her and I can’t imagine what I would do with out her. I mean who would make Ben and I laugh, who would we stare at, who would we talk about ALL the time, and who would I spend my day with? She is the craziest and busiest little girl. She NEVER stops playing!! Wow, I love her! Happy Birthday my little Lover!!

Watch my little girl grow over the last 12 months.

At Birth. 7 lbs 12 oz  21 1/2 inch long

One Month

Two Months

Three Months

Four Months

Five Months

Six Months

Seven Months

Eight Months

Nine Months

Ten Months

Eleven Months

One Year!!!

P.S. The baby emails I get now say Toddler! What the?!

While we were in Utah we had our family pictures taken. Our photographer Britney posted a sneek peek on her blog if you’d like to take a look. May I just say that my little lovey is so cute!!!!

Britneybphotography

This past weekend we drove up to New Jersey to see some of Ben’s old friends and to go to the beach. Ben’s friends Josh and Jul just had a baby girl (seriously JUST. Elsa is like a week old) and we were excited to go see them. They were gracious enough to let us stay at their house and cook us some great seafood. Ben was in heaven!! We were able to drive through a beach town called Wildwood (I guess it lives up to it’s name) and actually go to the beach in both Ocean and Atlantic City. I loved it!! Ben decided that even if we lived by a beach he wouldn’t want to go regularly unless he could surf each time. Plus he hated the crowds on the boardwalk. I on the other hand soaked up the sun and loved it all. (Although I agree with the surfing aspect-love it!!)

Hallie at 4 am when we left VA. We switched her to a front facing car seat and she loved it. (thanks Stacey) She did great on the trip,we only had to stop a few times.

Our little family on the Ferry from Delaware to Jersey

The Ocean City beach. Hallie hated the feel of the wet sand under her feet. Plus the water was freezing!

Holding her feet up so they wouldn’t touch.

Hal did LOVE playing in the sand in Atlantic City.

Getting buried by Dad with a smile on her face.

Despite her face in this picture she loved it. Although she did unbury herself shortly after this picture was taken. lol

Funny Story- we decided to put a regular diaper on Hal for the ride back from the beach. When we got to Josh and Jul’s we decided to put Hal in the pool to wash off all the sand. (She was a mess!!!! Sand in every single fat roll!)  This is a picture of her diaper after getting out of the pool. We laughed so hard! It couldn’t possibly hold anymore!!

We had tons of fun and fell in love with New Jersey. It is beautiful!! Thanks Josh and Jul for letting us stay with you.  We REALLY appreciated it! Elsa is a doll!!!

Hallie decided to walk on Monday. Wahoo! She crawled at 6 months and has been walking along furniture since 6 1/2 months. We had no idea it would take her so long to walk. I guess she wanted to do it at her own pace and we couldn’t push her. Ahhh my baby is growing up!!!

Also, my old roommate Brittany came into town yesterday and my other old roommate Lindsie and I were able to go see her. It’s not everyday that three old roommates from BYU-Idaho get together across the country! I was proud of myself for riding the metro and going into DC by myself. Two pats on the back please. haha 🙂

Linds, Me, Britty.  Ahh the memories!! I love these two. (Linds is a nanny here in D.C.)

Lunch

Hallie on the metro. She loved it-so many people to watch!!

So it’s been a month since we’ve moved and I’m just now posting pictures. PATHETIC I know! Better late than never.

We moved from a TINY one bedroom apartment into a three level townhouse. It’s a beautiful thing!!!! 🙂

We had so many friends show up to help us move. The actual move went SO fast. The guys just kept loading and before we knew it we were on our way to the new place to unload. Here are some pictures of SOME of our stuff boxed up.

So how do you keep a busy, busy 10 month old (at the time) out of your way so you can pack? Let me show you…..

Trap her in a box!

Distract her by putting cheerios in her path.

Let her play!

Thanks everyone who helped us move. Especially Stacey for unloading my kitchen even though she was 9 months pregnant, Lindsie, Susan, and Dana for spending your day cleaning my apartment and Anna who watched Hallie so we could clean. I REALLY REALLY appreciated it!

Here’s our new place…

We LOVE it!

IF you are interested here is part of a journal entry I wrote after we moved. It includes a list of reasons we love the new townhouse and the space it provides.

We went from the tiny one bedroom apartment and moving Hallie’s pack and play bed back and forth from bedroom to front room, to three floors with us each having our “own” room. Hallelujah!! (Ben keeps his clothes in the office closet and so refers to that as “his” room.) haha  Anyway, it has been fabulous and we don’t ever want to go back to apartment living. Before we moved as I would lay in bed I would make a list of all the positive things that moving would provide.

Here is my list:  1-Hallie gets her own room, which means no moving her bed or worrying about waking her up and being trapped in the opposite room. 2- more space to have people over. Before we could have one couple over at a time but no parties or large families because we simply could not fit them in the apartment. 3-Bigger kitchen to cook in! (A nice kitchen just makes me want to cook.) 4-Quiet. The apartment was in an ideal location for commuting (right next to the freeway) however the noise was almost unbearable. We got used to it in the year that we lived there but I would still cringe every time something was so loud it woke one of us up-especially Hallie. 5-People above us being loud. Hearing them and worrying that they can hear us. 6- With the noise of the street came the lights of the stop light and the cars head lights. It was so bright it was like noon day at midnight. We were able to hang black curtains to block out most of the light which fixed the problem but still, come on! 7-More space to do crafts. 8- More space for Hallie to play. 9- More space so it doesn’t look like a tornado hit our house every other day. Even after cleaning it just got messy so fast. 10-More space so things are not piled high in the corners. 11- A yard! I love flowers.

Hallie turned 11 months old last week but I haven’t gotten around to taking a picture of her until now.  So she is now 11 months and one week old. 🙂  I swear she gets cuter and more silly every day. I also swear she can’t be 11 months old. Didn’t I just go through labor a few months ago?!

I was thinking the other day about what word I would use to describe her. I have heard several of my friends call their babies sweet or an angel. Not that Hallie isn’t those words but I think that FUN and ENERGETIC describe her perfectly. She honestly never stops going. She loves peek-a-boo and playing with her toys and all of mommy’s things around the house. It is impossible to keep the house clean with her around. Hallie learned how to go up and down our stairs this past Friday. She’s very profiecent at it and does it just for fun most of the time. She has also started to stand up by herself without anything to hold on to. Plus she can bend down and pick things up from a standing postition without sitting or knealing down. Pretty impressive!  Hal loves to watch people. Often when we go places she will get in this serious mood and just observe people. So many people are like “wow so serious” and then they try to get her to smile and she rarely does. It’s pretty funny watching her stare at them like “stupid people I’m way smarter than you.” Her serious moods are only while we are around people these days which too me makes it even funnier. Hallie has also started talking quietly. She mumbles all this funny stuff constantly and she always talks back when we ask her a question or say something to her. It’s cute!!  She absolutely loves climbing and will try to climb anything she can, which often gives her bruises. She eats and sleeps good these days which is such a blessing for me.  The only time she gets cranky is when she needs a nap-big change from her earlier in life!!!! And last but not least she loves to laugh. Our favorite is her fake laugh which she does when other people are laughing. You have to hear it!!!!

This was our second fourth of July in the Nation’s Capitol and we can’t think of anywhere better to be on our Nation’s birthday. We love living here, especially on holidays like this one. Our wonderful adopted family the Stoker’s took us down town to the national mall where we spent the day filling our belly’s with Carol’s yummy food and chatting away with good friends. Last year it was soooo hot but then again I was also sooo pregnant and that in itself increases your temperature by like 10 degrees. 🙂 Anyway, this year the weather could not have been better. It was over cast for most of the day with a slight breeze yet it never rained or got unbearably hot. PERFECT! We were worried about how Hallie would do staying up way later than her normal bedtime but she did really good-that is until we got in the car to go home. Poor Stoker’s having to listen to Hallie scream herself to sleep.

The fourth of July is one of my top holidays. Second only to Christmas and tied with Thanksgiving. I love the history of our Country and I love fireworks! I am so grateful to live in America and enjoy all the freedoms that we enjoy. I just hope we don’t give up too many of them hoping to be safer. Anyway, I won’t get political on you. haha

Here are some pictures of our fun day.

Our spot

My new favorite photo

Hallie Bug

Hallie finally taking a nap in Dad’s arms

Hallie and Gabe playing

Hal discovered that now with 4 teeth she could eat an apple!

And boy did she eat it!!

That’s amazing!!

Hallie got nervous when the fireworks started, but she never cried. I’m covering her ear in the picture not restraining her. 🙂  She looks miserable in these two pictures-poor thing. At least the fireworks kept her attention she couldn’t take her eyes off them.

My old mission companion Sarah was in town and spent the afternoon with us. I love her!!

Most recent family photo

Thanks again Randal and Carol for bringing us along!! We loved it!

I’m finally getting around to posting ONE picture from my 5k. Honestly there is nothing attractive about running a 5k in pouring rain! I guess it wouldn’t be Virginia if it didn’t rain. Although you are only getting one picture of the race I will tell you three stories.

1st story- I have been wanting to run regularly for quite some time. I decided to pray and ask for the Lord’s help in A: Finding someone to watch Hallie. B: Finding someone to run with. C: Both!  The Lord answers prayers!!! Soon my friend Cheata expressed a desire to train for a triathlon or something of that nature. I was all over that! Since we both just had babies and are out of shape we decided to start small with a 5k and see what we work up to.  We have been going running regularly while her husband watches our kids. WONDERFUL!!

2nd story-So with this being my first race and all I would volunteer the fact that I am very naive when it comes to both running and races. I knew we were going to get a shirt with our “packet” on the day of the race so I assumed that we were supposed to wear the shirt DURING the race. Therefore I wore a regular ol’ T-shirt thinking I would change. (Running in VA’s heat and humidity REQUIRE me to run in as little clothing as I can. So a running tank top is my normal attire.) Anyway, when I got to the race I found out that we didn’t have to wear our shirts and in fact, according to Cheata’s husband, only LOSERS wear the shirts that they give you during the race. Hello there’s no way I’m running in that shirt if it has loser written all over it. So hence the red t-shirt in the picture. I know, I know long story with really no point but hey next time I run a 5 or 10k and post a picture you better believe I will be wearing a more “running appropriate” shirt. 🙂

3rd story- Ben “filmed” me with our video recorder as I finished the race only to find out later that he didn’t push record. Big Bummer. However, he did film Cheata coming in. 🙂

With shirts and the lack of presentable pictures aside I had a blast running the 5k. There were a TON of people there and I met my goal of finishing in 30 min. My time was 29:18 and I came in 173 out of almost 500 runners.

After months of waiting for the chance to go swimming OUTSIDE we were finally given the chance. A day without rain-not on a Sunday! Here are some adorable pictures of Hallie that I took at the pool. She is for SURE a water baby.

This is when I start to love summer!

This past weekend was full of some of the happiest days I can remember. We went to the Temple on Friday to celebrate our anniversary by performing sealings. It was a great reminder of what we promised each other and the Lord two years ago. I’m so grateful for the Temple, especially the DC, so many memories! Saturday I ran my 5k (I will post pictures later). Sunday was Ben’s first Father’s day and I hope it was a special day for him. I’m so grateful he is the father of my child (ren). Church was great, dinner was great, and dessert was even off the charts (I will post recipes later). Finally Monday was our actual anniversary and we celebrated by getting a babysitter (thanks Lee and Stacey!) and going to the batting cages. I know romantic huh…. actually I loved it!!!! Ben really went all out and gave me a gift that I will always cherish. Here is a picture of it.

It is a picture of our little family surrounded by some of our text messages from the past two years. Plus, he really went all out and got it printed on a frameless canvas (My favorite!) Did I already mention that I love it!

This is what I printed out and framed for Ben for Father’s day. It’s for his office at work.

Father’s Day family photo

She is becoming more and more of a Daddy’s girl.