Saturday, September 18th

Mercedes is napping and Taylor is out at "the gun store" with his brother and dad and so I'm taking the alone time to blog. It will only be as long as my baby's nap. Since I'm just sitting here listening to the silence plus the dishwasher (so not really silence) I'm just going to go over recent events and thoughts I have on my mind. Throughout will be pictures of my adorable little cumquat.
First of all, Mercedes will be 7 months old tomorrow! I know, I really cannot believe it. Seven months is a long time. It's almost as long as a full pregnancy. She doesn't seem like it's been that long but I guess it has.
Mercedes has two teeth and I think she may be getting another soon. She had a fever on and off the last day or two (poor thing) with no other symptoms and so I'm just waiting for another tooth to come through.
She's also pretty much crawling now. She hasn't quite gotten down the mechanics of it all but she gets up on her knees and then does a sort of push-up where she's only on her hands and then big toes with her legs straight back behind her. It's quite the sight to see. In the end, she gets where she wants to go.
On a different note, Taylor is turning 26 tomorrow! I love that man so much. He works so hard to support our little family and takes care of us so well. He is the love of my life and makes me the happiest woman.
So I just have to say how EXCITED I am that my family will be home from the Ukraine in nine and a half months!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yes that's right. They have been on the other side of the world for longer than a full 2 year mission and it has been a LONG time of missing someone, let me tell you. (well 5 people to be exact). AND a month after mom, dad, Morgan and Slade come home, Jordan will be home from his mission in Chile!!!!!!! I can't even tell you how much it feels like a dream come true to actually be with everyone at the same time again. My mom, dad, brothers, sister-in-law and nephew (plus another niece or nephew on the way) . And the five family members who have been gone will finally get to meet Mercedes!
Mercedes looks very pensieve in these two photos.
What else is happening around here? Oh it's starting to get cloudy here and there and I cannot wait for the daily cloud cover. I thrive off of cloudy skies and a little rain. I am also getting really really excited for the fall/Christmas seasons.
My best friend Lacey is having her baby boy in the next few weeks! I'm so sad I won't be in Utah to see her after he's born but I'm so excited for their little family and also that we will both have babies. Taylor and I are trying to figure out how we can get out to Utah sooner than next summer.
Mercedes loves her daddy.
I'm starting to run out of things to say actually. I'm very tired from waking up every hour or so during the night to take Mercedes' temperature just to make sure her fever wasn't coming back. Thank goodness it didn't.
See how Mercedes is crossing her legs in this photo above? She always crosses her legs, so dainty!
Here she is getting up on her knees.
And here she is lounging and sipping from her bottle of water.
Being a parent is so rewarding. I am in love with this little girl. Well I guess that's all for my thoughts. Taylor is home now so I'm going to go spend some time with him before Mercedes wakes up. Have a wonderful Saturday and thanks for reading. :)

Toy for baby, toy for mommy

Yep, yesterday we finally gave in an got a walker for Mercedes. Gosh it sounds like I didn't want one for her or something, which isn't true. Actually I've been wanting to buy her one for a while and just haven't but after moving some things around in the kitchen and making more space I realized how perfect the situation would be with a walker! I found a cute/good priced one and went ahead and got it. Mercedes really likes it although she can barely touch the floor on the lowest setting. She is starting to understand that she can move around when she pushes with one foot. Happy mommy!

Notice how her jammies are unzipped so she can touch the floor with her toes?

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!