It's the 4th of July! Firecrackers in the sky!

The title of this post comes courtesy of the sweet song Whitney and Monica wrote years ago. We were singing it all weekend. Ask me for the tune. It'll get stuck in your head too. The main trouble with it is that Daniel and I only know these lines so we sing them over and over.

4th of July was really a whole weekend this year. It was great.

Being patriotic on the stair landing- her favorite hang out spot lately

Saturday wasn't too eventful for us. We went on a long walk in the morning during which Sadie fell asleep in her stroller. I only mention this because it hasn't happened since Sadie was about 6 months old.


Picture of the Oarweed's actual strawberry shortcake.
You can find anything on the internet.
We had Tyler and his roommate Nick over for dinner and I attempted to recreate the most delicious dessert on the planet- strawberry shortcake from The Oarweed (the restaurant I worked at the summer after I graduated from high school). If you ever happen to be in Oguinquit Maine- go to this restaurant! This dessert has layers of warm shortcake biscuit, fresh strawberries, sweet strawberry sauce, vanilla ice cream, and whipped cream. I have been attempting to recreate it for years, but this was my closest attempt yet.


I really wanted to take Sadie to watch the Stadium of Fire fireworks but Daniel vetoed it. Seeing as we sat in traffic for about 2 hours last year it was probably a good decision. We kept Sadie up late (she normally goes to bed about 8 PM) and walked around watching the neighborhood kids set off fireworks.

We were surprised that she wasn't scared of the noise. She cries at all loud noises- vacuum, blender, electric beater, etc. She just seemed mesmerized by them. These were the only 2 pictures we got of her looking at the camera instead of the fireworks.

By 10 PM Sadie just wanted her bed. We did have fun watching the small fireworks shows and we got to meet a few more of our neighbors.

On the actual 4th of July we went to church and then went up to SLC for a family dinner.


On Monday, July 5th, Sadie and I got up and drove Daniel to the airport. At the airport Daniel opened Sadie's car door, kissed her, and said goodbye. Immediately upon the door shutting Sadie was hysterical. I don't know if it was a coincidence or if Sadie understood what was happening but I had to pull over and make her a bottle to calm her down.


Sadie and I stopped by IKEA on our way home from the airport. Some advice- don't go to IKEA by yourself with a baby if you want to buy furniture. And don't allow your father to feed the baby baked beans the day before so that she poops up her back while you are shopping. And don't neglect to check how many diapers you have left until you are actually in the bathroom at IKEA and find out all you have is a swim diaper. At that point just go home. Don't continue to shop and then pick out a bookcase that is too heavy to lift so you have to ask emo teenagers for help. Don't think that just because it is now in your cart you can get it home. When you get to the self-checkout with a screaming, smelly baby and realize you have to lift the box up to scan it with the barcode reader you should give up. If you don't give up just realize you are going to have to ask more people for help lifting up the box to scan it, pay for all your items, and then slowly wheel it all into the family bathroom to check on the progress of the poop up your baby's back. You are going to have to wheel it all the car, strap your screaming baby into her carseat, and wait around until someone is willing to help you load it into your car. Don't drive your Hyundai Sonata to IKEA if you buy furniture because then the random kind strangers who are helping you will have to spend 10 minutes trying to finagle a way to fit the boxes in your car.

It was a bit of a rough trip to IKEA. And yes, I do realize that if I could have just gone home at any time and gotten out of the mess (besides the liquid poop diaper- dad that is all your fault!).

All that being said, IKEA is amazing and I will be returning soon sans baby, but with husband and our Ford Explorer.

Papa & Nana

Last week my parents (Nana & Papa to Sadie) came out to Utah for Alicia's open house. We are calling them Nana and Papa now, but this may change depending on what the grandchildren actually call them. My cousin Brandon thought we were calling him Pop Pop (as in Arrested Development's "I have Pop Pop in the attic") and now I am pushing for that.

With the married couple

The day after the open house in Salt Lake we all went to Malad for a big John family get together. Then we got to have my parents stay with us in Orem for a few days. They were our first official house guests. They watched Sadie while I was at work, helped me with a few projects, and celebrated with us.


My dad has decided to fill the role of the grandpa who uses food to gain love. When we were in Boston last month he gave her ice cream and unlimited graham crackers.

This time was no different. Here he is feeding her some flag cake on the 4th of July.

She actually didn't like it very much. She takes after her dad when it comes to cake.


I got this idea stuck in my head that I wanted to make a cornice for our living room window. The project worked out decently well. When I am done decorating the living room I'll share pictures.

Helping with the window treatment project

We decided to celebrate Sadie's 11 month birthday since my parents won't be here to celebrate Sadie's first (yikes!) birthday. We even wrapped their presents.

Sadie wasn't sure what to do so we pretty muchopened them for her.

Don't be fooled by Sadie's eyes- she loved each new present and was not interested in opening the next thing. She had some sort of cold/teething induced hayfever/who knows type thing (this is the official medical term) that made her eyes water.

After blowing the biggest snot bubble ever.

Her favorite present was this alligator piano/xylophone on wheels. She currently enjoys dragging it by the mallet and hitting her dad in the face with the mallet.

Daniel is putting the new blocks to good use already.
We are so proud


Sadie loved to rip my mom's glasses off her face and throw them on the floor. The picture above took 6 tries. That's no small feat with my crappy camera.

My mom gave in on this shot and just let her have them.

Thanks for visiting us Nana and Pop Pop!

Swimming Beauty

A couple weeks ago we took Sadie swimming at the Scera Park pool. She screamed and then loved it. Part of her love was the fact that she had her trusty lobster with her.

Overall it was a fun time, but I'm not sure it is worth $10 for 2 adults to watch a baby sit in shallow water and splash. Maybe we'll go back when she can walk.

Tooth

Sadie's got a tooth...

(actually now she's got two)

Trouble Maker

Sadie is all over the place getting into everything now. She doesn't usually make too big of a mess and most of the time it makes us laugh.

She sits on her father's face. Before this she literally sat on his face.

She crawls into her changing table closet

and empties all the shoes

She crawls up the stairs

(She also crawls away while we change her diaper. Daniel requested no bare butts on the blog)

She plays with the window halfway up the stairs


She is rarely without a straw in her hand.

She has loved this table since the day we got it.

Before we put the legs on.

She loves to walk between the chairs.


(Now we have the legs on and a rug)


She plays in the pantry


She flies (with the assistance of dad)

Other activities not pictured- playing in the garbage, eating out of the garbage, walking with her walker (pics coming soon), and throwing tantrums

Hambone

Sadie has finally started smiling for the camera instead of staring at it with wonder. I wanted to get a picture of her in a darling headband Naomi made and Sadie was working it for the camera.

No More Excuses

Alright, so we have been back from Boston for almost a month and I am still doing posts about it? Lame, I know. Back in Utah we have had some fun visits and a sad goodbye.

Sadie got a visit (and a present) from her godfather Jared.
He was in Utah for a couple days and he stopped by and saw us for a while. Sadie was fascinated with Jared's shoelaces and kept pulling them.

We said a sad goodbye to Sadie's babysitter Naomi. Babysitter isn't an accurate word because Naomi is more like an aunt- she feels like family. Naomi is due with another little boy, Jude, on July 21st so we had to find a new babysitter.

Naomi has been watching Sadie since she was 3 months old.
Naomi's son Hyrum really does feel like an older brother or cousin for Sadie.

We are really hoping Naomi decides to do daycare again when Jude gets a little older. We would bring Sadie back in a heartbeat. Sadie loves Naomi and Hyrum with all her little heart. The adjustment to a new babysitter has been a little rough for us all.

On a happier note, we also got a visit from Aunt Courtney all the way from Austin.

Sadie picked right back up with Courtney. She has always liked her.
Maybe it's all the clothing Courtney brings.
I really struggled to get a good picture of them together.




Side note: I have no idea why these last 2 pictures are blurry. Our camera just sucks. On top of random blurry it photos it also frequently turns off by itself, doesn't save pictures, and tells me that various parts are open (when they are shut). Does anyone have a suggestion for a "best bang for your buck" (good quality, decent price) camera? I have heard Canon Rebels are good, but I don't know anything about cameras. I'm not sure if I want something that requires much effort but I do love the higher quality pictures. I just need some advice.