I had planned on going to storytime on St. Patrick's Day, but I didn't feel very good, so Cheyenne and I ended up staying inside all day and no one got to see her in her cute outfit. I wanted to take a picture of Jeff, her and I all in green, but since I never left, I didn't really wear anything green and Jeff forgot so he didn't either. I guess next year, Cheyenne will be old enough to sort of understand and we can dye all the food and make corned beef and cabbage and stuff... this year was just sort of lame... oh well, Cheyenne still looked cute:)

Cheyenne feeding her baby doll

Here is a video of Cheyenne feeding her baby, she had been doing it for like 5 minutes, so I decided to get it on camera. We had just given her the napkin to wipe the face off, because the baby's whole mouth was filled with milk, and Cheyenne kept trying to push the milk down with her finger. Right after I stopped video taping, Cheyenne blew me a kiss, of course. You can never catch it on camera!

Nothing else really new going on around here. Basketball is over, now Jeff comes home after school and it rocks!

What's new: Monster Post

Holy Cow! It has been so long since my last post I have been considering just giving up on the whole blogging thing... the reason why I took such a long break, was that I feel like I am always on the computer between facebook, email, paying bills, couponing blogs, looking up and reading about things I need to learn about, looking up costs of vacations (I could spend hours planning fake vacations), hahaha... I also often go to lds.org where they have the entire scriptures on their website and I read the scriptures online, because I love how you can just click on the links so fast to read more about a certain topic, where it would take me like an hour just to read a topic in the regular scriptures because you have to look up where the scripture is and then find it then go back to the topical guide... anyway, long story short... too much time on the computer and it gives me a headache!

Anyway, I decided I would update today because I just felt the urge... I don't even really have a topic to update about. I was thinking about putting the video up from the last time it snowed here, but videos take like half an hour to upload on my computer. I might do that later...

There are lots of new things in our life lately:) Jeff finished his Master's Degree in December and is also working extended day meaning he has no planning period, so he gets paid more. He is also coaching basketball (he also coached football)... basically he is working his little butt off so Cheyenne and I can play at home all day:) He is such a great husband and we are so lucky to have him! His basketball team just won their 2nd round of state last night. It was an uncomfortable game because we are all used to them winning by 20-80 points, so only being ahead by 4-10 points the whole game made everyone nervous. Their next game will be this Saturday, they are now in the "Elite Eight." They are playing the same team at the same place as they did last year when they got to the Elite Eight... hopefully this time we will be the ones moving on the the final four instead of them this year!

I am also still watching Colin, a little boy a couple of months younger than Cheyenne. I am looking forward to him learning to walk because I think it is much easier when they learn to walk. Everyone told me oh you won't like it when Cheyenne can walk... those people are stupid. That sounds mean, (and if you are one of those people who told me that, don't worry I am not talking about anyone in particular, I don't even remember who told me that but about 100 different people did) but that really annoys me, when people say, "oh wait til she crawls you'll wish she never had!" Well, I have never wished Cheyenne didn't sit up, or roll over, or crawl, or walk... every time she reaches a new milestone, everything gets better and easier... I guess maybe I wont feel the same with my next child, who knows...

This is Colin and Jeff one day when Jeff had a snow day. They were both asleep like this I thought it was so funny.

I have also been doing a lot more activities with Cheyenne. Every other Monday, and every Tuesday and Wednesday there is story time at the library. Then on Fridays I have a play date with a couple of girls in the ward at my house. Then randomly I get together for playdates with other people in the ward. It has been really fun and Cheyenne and I both love it. I also took Cheyenne to a place in the mall called 1-2-3 Jump! It is all these inflatable toys and slides and she LOVED it. At the beginning she was all nervous but by the end she would go down the slide all by herself... she is still a little young though, because I had to help her up to all the toys, but she had a blast. The following picture is of Cheyenne and Colin at infant story time at the library. This is at the end which is free play time. Colin is in the middle on his knees looking the other way and Cheyenne is in the red pants (her Valentine's day outfit).

I also am still coaching a club volleyball team which is really fun, I have just loved it! Coaching club is so much better than high school. It is like half the work and double the pay:) I love it. I had gotten burned out of coaching when I was at Kearns, so this club season has been great to remind me why I love this sport and why I love coaching. We have about 6 weeks left and 3 tournaments. The girls on my team are so great and their parents are AWESOME! They are so supportive and helpful, and organize everything. Anyone who has coached before knows it can make such a difference with the support of the parents. This picture is from the two tournaments ago when we won t-shirts for winning the silver division.

My new calling at church is the Young Women's Personal Progress leader. I pretty much am supposed to be motivating the girls to pass off values in their personal progress by reading scriptures, journal writing, giving service, etc. I am not that great at it, but I have started to try to pass off my own things so I am starting to understand it a little better. Many of the girls are very self motivated and have done so much on their own.

Cheyenne has been "talking" a lot more lately. I say "talking" because I don't know that most people would recognize the words she says, but she does say words consisitently. Here is what she says:

1. snow- "no"

2. mama

3. dada

4. "ashes, ashes da da da dow" (from ring around the rosie)

5. juice

6. banana "nuhnana"

7. no no no (while shaking her finger at you)

8. nose "no"

9. ah ah ah (when she sees a monkey)

10. baaaa (when she sees a sheep)

11. woohoo! (when I tell her to say that)

12. uh oh!

13. oh no!

14. shoe

I think that is everything. She can also point to her eyes, nose, mouth, toes, head, teeth and ears.

She just had her 15 month check up the other day and she has moved up to the 25th% (from the 10th) in height and down to the 25th % in weight (from the 50th%) she is very tiny, but I was always very tiny too, until my junior year in high school, so it is probably just in her genes. She eats anything we put in front of her, so hopefully we are feeding her enough...

Here are some of the things I am most looking forward to:

1. Jeff being done with basketball (although by being done, I hope that means they win the state title).

2. Jeff's team beating Columbia this weekend!

3. The weather getting warmer

4. Hopefully a tax refund (although I haven't done our taxes yet and I am not looking forward to actually having to prepare them).

5. Getting the Master's and extended day pay (this hasn't been applied to Jeff's check yet, but they will back pay him, meaning we should be getting a big paycheck soon, hopefully!)

6. The weather getting warmer

7. Jeff's school getting out for the summer in May- 3 months to go!

8. The next season of the Bachelorette with Ali:)

9. Hopefully going home to Washington this summer if Jeff gets time off...

10. My brother Aaron and his family coming to visit and maybe my brother Jared coming to visit in March/April.

11. My next half marathon in Summerville in May.

Cheyenne's brush with death

The good thing about Cheyenne being sick is that she is very cuddly... here she is in her adorable hospital gown:

Okay so the title is a little over dramatic.... but has any mom out there felt like their child was so sick you were just a little scared they might die?? Deep inside I knew she wasn't going to die, but I couldn't help but be worried because she had a fever ranging from 101 to 104.5 from Saturday at noon (a couple weeks ago) until Thursday morning. I swear she took almost the entire container of Tylenol AND Motrin, and nothing was improving. We first decided to call the on call Doctor on Sunday night when her temperature was 104.5. I spoke to her and let her know she had no other symptoms that were visible to me, just the fever. She suggested I take her to the ER. I got all of her stuff together and my Dad and I left to take her there around midnight. On the way there we discussed what we thought they would do and we decided most likely they would probably just give her a prescription (after sitting in there for hours and probably being surrounded by even more germs) for some type of antibiotic that we wouldn't be able to fill until the next morning anyway. We flipped it around and headed back home deciding taking her to the ER would be a waste of time and money. Well I was up pretty much all night that night and the next morning her fever was gone and all was well... then that night she had a fever again of 103.5, luckily our Dr's office is open late on Mondays so we took her in (after we officially signed the papers for our home loan, we had to get two different loans a temporary and a permanent, it is a long story, but anyway it is official now, so that is good). The Doctor checked everything out and said everything looked great but he was concerned about the fever. He said if it was not gone by the next morning to bring her in.... (ANNOYING, they didn't do anything and it cost me $30....) the next morning she still had a fever, but I wasn't going to bring her in again for them to tell me just to come back. That afternoon the doctor called me to see how she was doing and I told him the same as before, so he said to bring her in the next day. I agreed and the next day when nothing had changed brought her in again (Another $30 for them to say okay take her to the hospital... couldn't they have told me over the phone??? Scammers...). Still didn't know what it was but decided it would be best to send her to the hospital for tests just in case. The biggest concern was of a UTI which she would have to actually be admitted to the hospital for if that was the case. Anyway, so I called Jeff and he took a sick day off of work. We spent all day in the hospital (most of the time in the waiting room). They had to put a catheter in her to collect a urine sample as well as poke her with all sorts of needles for blood tests, etc. The results all came back great and still no one knew the problem. I was relieved that the test results were good but couldn't help but be slightly irritated that we had spent all that time (and I am sure it will be expensive, haven't got that bill yet...) and there was still no solution. They told me to bring her back to the Doctor the next day and I said FORGET IT! No one knows what the heck is going on, everyone is just guessing, so if something new happened, I would have brought her in, but everything stayed the same and it went away a day or so later. I still don't know what it was... she did have a rash the last day in the hospital so some were suggesting roseola, but as I was reading about it online, there are some things that don't line up so I don't really think that is it... who knows... The important thing is she is healthy and fully recovered now... and we have an adorable mini hospital gown for a souvenir... I joke about the money, but I know it is most important that Cheyenne is healthy... one thing I did learn is that Doctors are most of the time just guessing, but it is a really educated guess, as opposed to my reading on the internet and guessing.... I felt like it was a waste of money to bring her to the doctor, but in all actuality it put my mind at ease knowing it was nothing super serious, so I guess it was okay. Like I said, I am just happy it is over!!

Visit from Dad and Karen

Dad and Karen came to visit a couple weeks ago. They stayed about a week. It was lots of fun and I really appreciated Karen watching Cheyenne during the football game so I could actually watch it for once!! Dad, of course, fixed various things around the house while he was here. The most important- the hot water here!! Now our water gets very hot- it is so great! It was great to have you here, come again soon!!

I didn't take a picture of all of us together, but I finally got this one off my camera, and haven't posted it yet. This is from our visit to Washington in the summer.

Grandpa Blum snuggling with Cheyenne

Another picture of Jeff and I after the game:)

Dad and I after the game:) Go Blue Devils!!! 

Florida Trip

The above photo is Cheyenne and I waiting at the airport, the next one is us at school lunch with Audrey:

Cheyenne fell asleep like this on Uncle Aaron:

Grandma with two in the last set of five babies:

Cheyenne and Austin:

Eating Lunch at School with Audrey

Cute Cousins:

Cheyenne and Austin crawling together:

Austin playing with Cheyenne:

This is how Cheyenne takes naps... I finally got a picture. She loves to be surrounded by stuffed animals. Of course it was my idea and I thought she would like it, surprising that she DOES like it! Except I used to sleep with all my cabbage patch dolls, like mother like daughter I guess:

Cute funny face:

Standing up:

Clapping:

Austin and Cheyenne wrestling:

Audrey's soccer game- they lost in a shootout, it was very exciting:

Mom's birthday, I made her this pie (and gave her the Addy American girl doll):

Mommies rocking their babies:

Four cousins! Or actually... 3 siblings and 1 cousin:

Spa night:

I LOVE this picture of Cheyenne at the beach:

The whole gang (minus mom who was the photographer & Audrey who was at school):

Austin loved to carry Cheyenne everywhere, this was at the beginning of the trip when she didn't mind so much:

Grandma and Cheyenne:

The PERFECT day! So warm and beautiful:

This blog post also actually took place about a month ago... I am a little behind... Anyway, in August, my brother and sister-in-law, had a new baby, a little girl that they named Ansley Brooke (isn't she adorable?):

 

I wanted to go stay with them for a while to help out, and my mom did too, so we decided to go the same week:) It was so much fun, but I felt bad, because I didn't realize I couldn't be much of a help when I had my own little baby to take care of... anyway, I flew standby and missed a flight, then barely got on the next one... It turned out to be worth it on the way back, since I made the first flight I tried to catch. On the way there I was second guessing my decision to fly, since it ended up taking just as long and it actually cost more than driving. I just like to fly because I feel safer that way. I finally arrived on Sunday night. It was so great to see everyone, I LOVE getting together with family! We got to meet little Ansley and everyone agreed she looks EXACTLY like her big sister Audrey.... EXACTLY! First thing we did Monday was head to the beach... mom and I were so excited! The weather and everything was perfect! Then, the rest of the week, we just lounged around. We actually did do more than that, but it is so long ago, I don't remember! We ate lunch with Audrey at school, I went on a lot of runs, took Audrey to soccer practice and game, watched the kids so Aaron + Andrea could have a date night, and much more. It was so fun, and we didn't want the week to end, but Cheyenne and I were excited to get home to see Jeffers. It was a wonderful trip to end the summer.

Georgia vs ASU

About a month ago (I have had this on my "to do" list forever!), Jeff and I went to our first Georgia Bulldog football game. Our neighbors, Mark and Katie, have been so great to us! They got us FREE tickets! I feel bad, because they are always hooking us up and we don't know what to do for them... anyway, it was SO MUCH FUN!! We got two cute girls from our old Elberton branch to babysit for us, and they did a great job. It was our first time ever getting a babysitter, so we were so excited to have a night out alone! We got dressed in red, went to dinner at a new delicious place in our coupon book called LUCKY WINGS. It was soo good!! We ate way too much food, then we were off to the game. I don't know if anyone heard about the floods in Georgia, but it has been raining like crazy! Luckily there were no floods around our house, but there sure was RAIN!! After dinner we looked outside and it was literally sheets of rain pouring down from the sky... we drove around to look for parking and there were places to park for $40!! Who in their right mind would pay $40 to park??? We parked for free about 2 miles away, which was good, because we definitely needed the exercise after all the food we ate! We ran in the rain to the stadium and were SOAKED before we even got to the game, but it just added to the fun. Cars were driving by, spraying us from the puddles, it was actually really fun. I had straightened my hair, and as you can see, it was completely soaked and curly in the pictures. Georgia ended up barely beating ASU 17-14. We had awesome seats in the end zone where all the action was! It was a great night and we definitely were in need of a night out with each other. We will have to do date nights more often....oh and we both wore red shoes....

Babysitting

Okay, sorry for the post overload... it is so much easier to do them all at once. Anyway, I have started to watch a little boy on Mondays and Fridays. He is soooo cute! He is 8 months old, but he doesn't crawl or anything yet, so it feels like he is much younger to me. Today was my first day and it went pretty well. He didn't take a nap, really, so he was pretty cranky by the end of the day. Luckily, he has a pretty quiet cry. He is a really sweet baby. It was really weird though, because it really made me realize how lucky I am with Cheyenne. Seriously, this kid is not a bad baby, but Cheyenne is just soooo easy I realized. She is just so mellow and goes with the flow. She barely needs any attention and is just so content exploring the house over and over again. She also sleeps really well through the night AND takes two or three long naps during the day. Anyway, this is only a part time thing a couple days a week, so I think it will be fine, but it was a long day! They were so cute together though, they would look at each other and try to touch each other. I am excited for them to get a little older and be able to interact a little more, and when Colin starts to crawl it will be more fun so they can follow each other around and stuff. Anyway, that's all for tonight:) I'm off to bed.

My biggest accomplishment

I had my biggest accomplishment of my post college life the other day (well, I guess other than having Cheyenne). I ran in a 5k and I won!! I was so excited! I never thought I could do it! Every time I enter one of these races, I secretly wish I could win and think maybe I will, but there are always so many fast people in front of me. This time I seriously did not think any of those things. I didn't think I would come close to winning, except maybe my age division or something. After mile 2, I realized I was the first girl and there were only about 6 boys in front of me (it turns out there were actually about 10, the other 4 were way further ahead). I kept thinking some girl would come flying by me at the end, so I just kept making myself go faster. When I had about half a mile left, I thought, "Oh my gosh, I might be able to win this race!!" I flashed back to my high school days when I actually used to be fast and win races. It was such a cool feeling. Anyway, so I finished in 21:12, which is about 6:49 minute mile pace. My last 5k I ran before the half marathon about 4 or 5 months ago, was 23:30 or something, which is like 7:30ish pace, so this was a huge improvement!! On all of my runs since the half marathon I have been feeling so slow, and out of shape, so this was a huge exciting surprise for me! Now I am all motivated to run more! I am going to do another half marathon on Halloween with some people in our ward and you better believe I will wear a costume!! Oh... so I won a tool case for being first overall female, because the race was to benefit Habitat for Humanity where they build houses for poor people. I know I shouldn't be bragging, and I am not trying to, but this is like seriously such a huge accomplishment for me, I had to write about it, so I wouldn't forget how I feel:) It is NOT just like "oh I won another race..." I WISH! I have always wished I would win a 5k!! Anyway, so I just thought I would share:) Oh I am running another 5k in Elberton in two weeks, so I will do another post about that one, hopefully it will be a happy one, haha...I found these pictures on our newspaper website, so I am pretty much famous, hahahha, just kidding, there were about 1 million pictures on there I had to flip through before I saw mine:

Finishing the race:

My friend Holli and I, she got second in her age division!!

Walking up for my cool tool case:)

Tool Case:

Garage Sale Finds

So I grew up going to garage sales and being around them and having stuff in my home from garage sales, but I had decided before that they are a waste of time and gas. This was until I had my own house and a baby:) Now, I am slightly addicted. I go every friday and saturday morning and I spend about an hour planning the most efficient route. I have found some AWESOME deals and almost everything in our house is from Craigslist or a garage sale. I wanted to post every single item we had from a garage sale on here, but then when I started to take pictures of everything, I realized that would take forever and would be really long and boring to everyone but me. Anyway, here are some of my favorites:

Rug: $27

Table + chairs (craigslist): $200

Curtains (actually in the clearance section at Lowes): 2 panels @ $3 ea... Total: $6

Little Radio Flyer (Cheyenne rides it around the house and loves the dinging bell): $2

These fake indoor plants, which I LOVE!! I saw them the week before I bought them at TJ MAXX for $130-$250 each. I got three different ones for a total of $22. 

These cute little fall scarecrow decorations: $3 for the pair (I need to sew on an eye still).

Microfiber sectional: Craigslist: $375... sooo comfortable too!

The Black little medicine cabinet: $2.oo I just cleaned it and gave it a fresh coat of paint (I already had some black paint from some previous craft project I had done).

Two bookshelves that match Cheyenne's crib perfectly: $15 for the pair.

Oh and now that I am looking... about 80% of her books are from garage sales, under $1 each. The little beanie babies (in perfect condition with tags still attached $1 each)

Brown stuffed doggy 50 cents

Little chair that I painted last year $1.

Little exersaucer play toy: $5

Paper shredder: $5

This was actually craigslist, but the desk, plastic mat on the ground and chair were altogether $40.

My most recent find: 

A miniature recliner that actually reclines!! It is sooo cute and matches our couch perfectly. Also, it is wide enough so I can sit in it too, so she can use it for a long time. It does have some tears in the arms, so I want to somehow make little slipcovers for the arms. It was only $3!!

Well, I just LOVE a good deal. And garage sales are so much better than couponing because it is so much less stressful, and prices are negotiable! It is like going on a treasure hunt every weekend because you never know what you will find. I also got some roller blades that are brand new for about $8 the other day. I rollerbladed around the neighborhood pushing Cheyenne and got kind of embarrassed because all the neighborhood kids were outside and like every single one had to shout to their parents, "MOM!! Look!! She is skating with the baby!! WHat is she doing???" Hahaha.... I also discovered that I am a much faster runner than rollerblader.... but I still like rollerblading. It is fun and a good workout!