Life the past month

At the beginning of August our little family along with Taylor's family went camping up past Forrest Hill. We stayed for 2 nights and had a blast. Mercedes did such an amazing job the whole time and I think she actually enjoyed it as much if not more than we did. Here's Mercedes all bundled up in her portable crib the first night.

Can I just say camp food is some of the best food in the whole world! I don't know if it has anything to do with the fact that it's cooked over a fire, or if it's because we're out in the wilderness and a good out doors cooked meal is just wonderful.

Mercedes looves grandma Tammy.

And she looves grandpa Galen.

We just love this smile!!! Camping was so much fun and we can't wait to go again in a couple of weeks!

And now on to our garden!

Here are our corn rows. We never thinned them and so it's probably why our corn isn't growing tall. (This picture was taken about a month ago but it isn't much taller now). However they are still getting corn cobs growing so hopefully they'll taste good!

We have two boxes out of the whole community garden. The corn is our first and this one is our second. We have tomatoes on the left and straight neck squash on the right.

There is just something amazing about growing your own food. Talk about reaping the rewards!

Now for a few pictures of Mercedes. No, the thing on her head is not a hat, it's just a bit of her mom's weirdness. There's something satisfying about putting pants on the head, even if it's someone else you're doing it to.

Mercedes is now 6 months old!!!! I really can't believe it. She also got her first tooth this week which came through two days before the 6 month mark. Here she is just lounging in a blanket.

Eeek I just LOVE this girl!!

A couple of days ago we had a wild fire just a couple of miles away from our house. This is a view from where we live.

We drove by later after it was put out and it got right up to the homes but didn't look like it touched them. Thank goodness for CalFire!

Playing on the floor.

Here Mercedes is doing her exercise ball pilates. Starting her young.

See this cheese here? It's Picorino cheese. SO GOOOOD. We discovered it when my mom and I went to Italy to visit the Christensen cousins back in 2006. Every time I take a bite I feel like I'm back in Rome. I introduced it to Taylor after we were married and he fell in love with it too. Now we like to spoil ourselves with a bit of Picorino and yummy french bread dipped in olive oil and vinegar.

A little "us" time late at night after the baby is asleep.

And now for one of my favorite events and discoveries of late...

I absolutely love making cakes!!!!! My whole life I've always wanted to try making actual fancy cakes with the buttercream frosting, different tiers and fondant icing. This weekend was my sister-in-law Hannah's birthday and I finally got the guts to give it a try. After watching lots of cake shows, reading recipes and instructions, and watching online tutorials on youtube I went for it. And I was pleasantly surprised when it turned out just as I had hoped (minus a few little kinks) and I now know that I definitely will be doing more in the future. I had a BLAST.

This here is the finished product, right before taking it over to Hannah's birthday party. It's not actually supposed to be glossy, that's just from sitting covered over night in the fridge.

I posted the whole cake making process on my other blog if anyone is interesting in seeing that. http://lovecreatelive.blogspot.com Anyway, it's been a great month and I hope to post again sooner that later. Bye!

Food, playtime and new pillows!

Mercedes is 5 months old now! Wow, really? I can't believe it. We are just so in love with this baby girl, I can hardly describe it! She is truly a blessing and we thank Heavenly Father for her daily!

She loves her daddy so much.

She's getting closer to sitting up on her own!

I thought it would be fun to see her reaction to playing in a pot of water.

She was entertained for a few minutes...

But I think she just started to feel frustrated.

Oh let me tell you about this binkey. She LOVES it. And she's starting to get down quite well how to grab it and put it in her mouth in the right way. So proud. :)

She tried baby rice cereal for the first time last week. I think she liked it, but she then started to get frustrated because apparently I was taking too long to get the spoon filled and bring it to her mouth.

Over all it was a good first time.

I think two posts ago I talked about making pillows for my livingroom. Well here they are! We sold our old T.V. on craigslist and with that money I went to the store and bought everything I needed.

Here are three of them, I made four over all.

So happy to have them finally. I THINK I'm mostly done decorating the livingroom now. Kind of a nice feeling. Have a nice day!

Another step

Monday we moved Mercedes into her own room. It was bitter-sweet. And even though her room is right next to ours I didn't feel good about it until we bought a baby monitor. And I must say it puts me at ease day and night when she sleeps/naps. How did I go for 5 months without one?

Monday night was the first night and it actually didn't go as well as I had hoped. We were still figuring out the moniter and must've had the settings off a little bit. Well, late into the night Mercedes woke and I guess when the moniter picked up the noise it set off a horrible screeching sound on our end and woke us up immediately, freaking us out in the process.

We went in and got Mercedes and I brought her back into our room where the glider was at the time. Taylor and I were all disoriented and wary, and after feeding her I decided I wasn't ready (and neither was Taylor) to put her back into her room for the rest of the night, and so she slept with us.

Last night we tried it again and I felt a little better about it because I had a whole day of testing the monitor while Mercedes napped. In the end the monitor worked as it should, Mercedes only woke once during the night and she slept in her bed the whole time! Really though, it was probably more of a challenge for us than it was for her. Anyway, I am so releived that it went smoothely and also very thankful for modern technology. Now Taylor and I have a little more space of our own and what was becoming a storage room is now the pretty baby room again. Yay!

My crafty husband

Look what Taylor made for me! We've been needing a DVD shelf for SO LONG and finally I drew up a picture one night and off he went to build it. After it was made I painted it red to match the little table in the room. I love it!Has anyone seen the show COLOR SPLASH on HGTV? I truly believe in good pops of color in a living space whenever possible!Happy wife. :) Thank you baby! Now the couch just needs some throw pillows. I'll be making those soon.

July Fun! A splash of photos

On July 1st we threw a post-birth family baby shower for Taylor's cousin Danielle. She is a beautiful new mommy and her baby Sienna is just darling! The cousins and their babies. Love.

We got some pictures of the baby girls together. I didn't realize how much Mercedes has grown!

This photo was taken later that night when daddy was getting her ready for bed. She looked adorable with her shirt off and I had to steal a picture.

Eeek she's so cute!

Oh to be a sleeping babe. Not a care in the world.

These next photos were taken on a day we spent playtime on mommy and daddy's bed.

Look at that sweet face!

She just loves this bunny. It's so much like me and my old bunny.

She has a thing with trying to eat faces. I don't know where she gets it?

Relaxing.

Face shots!

Then daddy joined in!

It's hard to get a photo where we're both smiling at the same time. :)

Over the 4th of July weekend Taylor's siblings Hannah and Adam came back from BYU Idaho to visit. We spent almost every waking hour at the parents' house swimming, eating and playing. Gramma Tammy gave this swimming suit to Mercedes. So cute!

The pink hat from Auntie Hannah. It's just now starting to fit.

This here is after bath time in the kitchen sink.

Here's something recently discovered. Mercedes LOVES sleeping on Grandpa Galen's chest. And Grandpa Galen falls right to sleep with her! These two are adorable.

Here's some of the family in the kitchen. Tammy, Jonathan, Adam and Beth (Adam's girlfriend). The kitchen is always a great gathering place.Early Monday morning we all got up and drove out to the shooting range an hour away so that Taylor could shoot his new gun. He got Springfield XD 40 handgun. Pretty cool, and pretty hard to shoot. (In my opinion)! Mercedes was a good sport and played in the car with the girls while we took turns shooting. I love this face she's making.Having a daughter is just the best!

Family at the range.

Someone took this photo of the bullets. I had no idea my retarded camera could take anything like this. It's pretty cool.

And last but not least! This was just a picture I took of Taylor yesterday while at his parents house. He had just gotten home from cycling from work. I love this face. I love my man!