Catch-Up

There have been a few big events that I have neglected to post about (because I've neglected the blog...) So, here's a little ketchup:

I mean, CATCH-UP.  Haha...

Our sweet baby, Adalyn turned TWO!  If you ask her, she's "2 minutes." I cooked her chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast and she was in heaven.  Heck, so was I.  It was the first time I'd ever tried them too.  They were good.

We had a little family party for her.  She kept saying she wanted a "Beast-a-paaardy" Which translated means Beauty and the Beast.  It was fitting, seeing as she has been obsessed with that movie since she developed her  love for watching TV.

I got her a Belle dress, and a Belle cake and we decorated the house for a princess.  {side note: going along with the theme, Addy loves to dance with her dad.  It's the sweetest thing you've ever seen.  She says "Dadda Beast, Addy Belle." And then he sings the song to her and they dance all around the room. So precious!)

Before the guests arrived, I wanted to take a picture of Addy/Belle.  I took a few:

Click on the photo to make it larger

This is a progression of her many faces.  In the first ones, I told her to smile; so naturally, she gave me her dirty glare look.  So then I did the good ol' reverse psychology (wow, that's a tough one to spell.)  I told her, "Don't smile.  Don't you dare smile..."  And what do you know, a big grin appears.  This girl definitely has some "Addy-tude"

Here's her cake, that I didn't make...

Addy kept snitching little bits of frosting while we were singing to her.  (another sidenote: that reminds me that she has also begun snitching her food during the prayer.  She squints her eyes like they're closed but reaches out to her food and slyly grabs some and sticks in it her mouth-maybe we shouldn't put food in front of her until after the prayer?)

I tried to cut the cake for her so she wouldn't just eat the frosting. She wouldn't have it and put it right back in it's place and continued devouring the frosting.

We opened lots of fun presents:

Addy loves her new bike!

And of course, this little bug got completely worn out from all the partying, dancing, and sugar.  She fell asleep with balloons in her hands...

Moving on from birthdays...

We've made quite a few trips to grandma & grandpa's house since I'm trying to finish a project there.  Here's my little diva on one of the car rides:

We have all enjoyed the bounteous harvest that a garden brings.  Especially when you don't have to weed it! ;)  G-ma & g-pa are kind enough to share with us.  Addy likes to eat tomatoes and peas straight off the vine! We have also enjoyed apples!  We have made applesauce, pie filling, and dehydrated apples.   I also canned 2 bushels of peaches!  The things I do for this girl...

Addy & I went to Gardner Village with some MBASA friends.  

Sometimes she didn't know what to think of the witches...

Can't forget FOOTBALL!  Seth and I have season tickets again this year and it's so much fun sitting by all of our friends.  We brought Addy to one of the games.  At first, she was super intimidated by all the people and noise in the stadium.  She warmed up eventually though and had a good time.  Until after half time she said "Go home now." She had had enough.  The next day, though, she said, "More football? I wanna see football." Making her dad very proud.

 She loved the fight song and clapped her hands with everyone else.

This picture is hilarious.  I'm not going to say anything else.

That's all the catch-up I have in me right now.  Stay tuned.

Perspective

Time flies!  I feel like since we got back from the summer that we hit the ground running and haven't slowed down!  It makes me miss the leisure time we had in Seattle over the summer.  Seth was super busy with work and projects, but I feel like I saw him a lot more than I do now. 

We have both been so busy between church callings, work, school, job conferences, interviews, business trips, MBASA activities, projects, ADDY...I feel like there are so many days when Seth gets home from school and I'm running out the door as he comes in!  Don't get me wrong, we are both really enjoying this last year of MBA school and being in Utah near our families.  We have been so blessed with many opportunities and new friends since moving here over a year ago.  Not everything has happened the way we thought it should, or planned on; but we are grateful for the perspective we've gained and lessons we have learned thus far.  It is truly wonderful that we have a Heavenly Father who knows us and is mindful of even the little things in our life and that he has a plan for all of us.

One of my favorite things about the MBA program at BYU has been that it's not only Seth that has been getting educated and improving.  I feel like I too am getting more educated.  We're both in this.  There are so many classes and workshops and park days and book clubs and get togethers with the MBA spouses (or widows, hehe).  {Think Relief Society on major steroids} I get to learn so much from amazing women and make great friends in the process.  So while we're both super crazy busy, I know that we are both trying to take full advantage of the opportunities that we get to have here, because there will be nothing else like it.  I can't believe that there is only 6 months left! 

Check out the cool guy in the middle